Food Teacher’s Centre

Sept 2018 News

Hello! A busy start of term and bringing you the latest news on alternatives to GCSE qualifications!

This half term is disappearing very quickly, with most schools preparing their 2nd cohort for NEA 1 and vocational assessments, although we have also been supporting many teachers that are doing this for the first time.

On Saturday 3rd Nov, we will be holding our national event, with presentations from all the exam boards – across vocational courses and GCSE, as well as Level 3 (A level equivalent), with the option to brush up on your practical skills as well with the University of West London tutors. More details are below.

What Alternatives are there to GCSE?

Vocational Course developments – Technical Awards, Vcerts

Last July (2017), we ran a support day for teachers choosing and delivering the new vocational courses. This was well attended and included some great presentations from exam boards, and those organisations providing free teaching resources and support such as Springboard FutureChef.

If you would like to know which exams are approved to be equivalent to GCSE then you should consult the government website, which is updated as qualifications are approved. But do not assume that because one qualification is approved for 2018 or 2019, that it will be available automatically in 2020. There is a regular re-approval process.

We have always been concerned that there are organisations spreading misleading information that a VCERT or other vocational qualification is easier to pass than the GCSE. These organisations appear to be in the business of telling your school ways to get more points on the performance tables. This is simply NOT TRUE. There are no shortcuts to more performance points. GCSE is a Level 2 award, and so are vocational qualifications that are equivalent on the performance table. Some of their guidance that VCERT can be delivered and taken in 6 months or a year is not only an almost impossible achievement, but it fails in the duty of care to pupils who deserve a balanced and fair curriculum opportunity. It damages the subject in setting up pupils to fail, leading to poor results, lack of motivation and overstretched staff.

Some vocational qualifications offer a level 1 safety net, such as WJEC Hospitality and Catering, which is helpful when looking for alternatives for your less able pupils. The subject is not easier to pass, but the learning may be more accessible for pupils, and the style of assessment suits their needs better. OFQUAL is rigorous in its pursuit of standards, so they would not allow one exam to be easier than another.

What to choose?

Since that July 2017 event, choices have become more limited for teachers

– – AQA Food and CateringTechnical Award was dropped by the exam board after it failed to gain government approval in 2017.

– – City and GuildsLevel 1 and 2 may be problematic for some schools unless they run other City and Guilds courses, as there is a minimum requirement for 100 candidates.

– – NCFE VCert Level 1 and 2 Food and Cookery has been with OFQUAL for re-approval for 2020, and they are now appealing their appeal. Its future is uncertain. This leaves centres already signed up to this exam in a very difficult position to know what to teach this year ready for 2020. This qualification is approved by DfE in the 2017, 2018 & 2019 ONLY Key Stage 4 Performance Tables.This current qualification will expire on 31 August 2019 and this is the last date they can accept learner registrations.

– – BTEC Level 1 and 2 Hospitality Tech Awards for 2020 were not approved by Dept for Education after the appeal of the appeal failed. They will still be running their Home Cooking Skills Course (previously known as Jamie Oliver Home Cooking Skills), without performance points, and Level 3.

As food teachers, we know the level of disruption that this uncertainty is causing our schools. Last year, some schools made a late switch away from GCSE to a vocational qualification, and may now have to change back or change to another approved qualification. At a time when there is no budget to waste, schools have been spending money on new books, resources and training to set up these newer courses – only to find that the courses have ceased after a short time.

Across this list of qualifications at the time of writing this email, the only approved course outside of the GCSE suite for 2020 is the WJEC Hospitality and Catering (A)

Its predecessor GCSE Catering WJEC has an excellent track record, and many teacher supporters. There is a new book for the course by well-known author Anita Tull and Alison Palmer, and friendly helpful staff available to answer questions at the board and provide CPD for the teachers setting up https://wjec.ticketsolve.com/shows/873593255 . It also has a Level 3 Food Science and Nutrition option for progression.

If you are looking for help

We are running a workshop for Level1,2,3 WJEC courses at our Saturday 3rd November event ‘Food Boost’

Exam board staff from NCFE and BTEC will also be there to talk to you and run workshops to help you with their courses, and to answer your queries and concerns.

Register for our free mentoring programme, so that you can be matched with an experienced teacher who teaches the same board, who will be able to offer you advice and guidance. Sign up here.

Chefs Back to School

We are very excited to tell you about our new programme for this year called ‘Chefs Back to School’. In order to address some of the issues we face, we are showcasing the success of your ex students by inviting them back to your school to do a demonstration of their skills to you current pupils.

Our team has led similar highly successful programmes (Student Associate Scheme (SAS) 2008-11). Whilst SAS aimed to encourage Associates into teaching as a career, a more profound unexpected impact on the pupils was discovered. Having students back in school transformed pupil aspirations particularly those in households that had never been to college or university (such as families of three generations unemployed).

We aim to get

200 hospitality and catering students back to their secondary schools talking to 5,000 pupils

Student chefs will meet pupils, teaching staff and headteachers, increasing the visibility of this valuable subject, creating a talking point and photo opportunity in school of a successful ex-student.

Provide food teachers with first-hand up to date information about local courses and careers, so that they are better equipped to give accurate careers advice to pupils and parents during ‘options’ meetings

Forge a sustainable, long term partnership between local schools and colleges to increase recruitment to local catering and hospitality courses and provide support between them.

Taste of Game and the Food Teachers Centre have come together to bring you training and resources that helps you teach the curriculum. A key aim is to upskill teachers in the preparation of game and supply schools directly with ingredients for cooking it. With training and support, we hope that you will use game confidently with your classes. The programme will match the GCSE and vocational course requirements so that 60,000 students will get a chance to experience how to prepare, cook and taste game before they leave school.

We hope that students will:

– Understand ‘provenance’ and how game is reared, prepared and cooked

– have tasted game, tried out some recipes and are familiar its taste, value and uses

– take home a positive message about game to the family shopper/cook, including its nutritional benefits and uses in a modern balanced diet.

All training is mapped to the GCSE and vocational examinaition courses with a focus on achieving better marks in the practical exams, and is mapped against the Food Teacher Professional Portfolio standards.

Coming up! Training and support for you

FOOD BOOST!

SATURDAY 3rd November 9.30-3.45

National Face to Face event at

University of West London, Ealing

This national training day will bring hundreds of food teachers together for a unique set of workshops and practical cooking skills sessions that focus on new qualifications (GCSE and Vocational Levels 1-3), reviewing your results and moving forward with planning and delivery.

What we can learn from 2018’s exam results for GCSE and Vocational courses

How to improve your course and student performance

Developing an intervention plan for Y10-11

Intervention strategies that work

Free resources to improve your teaching

Your presenter:

As founder of the Food Teachers Centre, Louise has won awards for her work with the community (2018 Outstanding Contribution to D&T Excellence Award, Global Excellence 2017 Best Nutritional Health School Engagement programme and 2017 Best Public Health Sugar Reduction Awareness Campaign) and is recognized by Facebook as a Power Admin for one of the “most active, engaging and influential groups on the Facebook platform”. She works with the United Nations developing a White Paper on School Food for low income countries. She advised DfE on the new GCSE 2014-16, as well as being OFQUAL’s current subject expert for D&T, Food Preparation & Nutrition and Hospitality and Catering exams. Her teaching resources have been used all over the world for by D&T/Food teachers.

Keynote –Mark. Plan. Teach. in Food

Ross Morrison McGill – Teacher Toolkit

With teacher workload and mental health issues at record levels, ideas that work in the classroom to alleviate workload and support teacher wellbeing are essential. Ross offers food teachers a range of strategies and insights into ‘what teachers can do in the classroom’ and ‘why and how’ they work. Ross’s presentation is full of practical ideas which deliberately mirror the teaching process.

Mark. Plan. Teach.

shows how each stage of the teaching process informs the next, building a cyclical framework that underpins everything that food teachers do.

enables all food teachers to maximise the impact of their teaching and, in doing so, save time, reduce workload and take back control of the classroom.

Your presenter:

Ross Morrison McGill has been very popular at Food Teachers Centre events, as a D&T teacher and school leader with 23 years experience. He has written 3 books on teaching and is passionate about teacher well-being and teaching and learning. In 2010, he founded @TeacherToolkit, rapidly becoming one of the most popular websites for sharing resources and ideas around the world.

@TeacherToolkit, is the most followed teacher on Twitter in the UK. His practical, inspiring lesson ideas are what make him so successful. His 5 Minute Lesson Plan is used by teachers all over the world! In 2015 he was listed in the Debrett’s 500 as one of the ‘most influential people in Britain’ and in education. He is the bestselling author of 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Outstanding Lessons and Teacher Toolkit.

We are delighted to be working with the prestigious Westminster Kingsway College, London again to bring teachers, support staff and technicians who do not have any food qualifications a chance for training and recognition. This is a FULLY FUNDED three-day course Introduction to Culinary Skills’.

Course Description: The Westminster Introduction to Culinary Skills Certificate is an 18- hour hands-on certificate programme in professional cookery education that offers expert tuition, fit for purpose equipment and facilities, top-quality ingredients and tuition in classic and contemporary European recipes. In eighteen hours total, you will experience a comprehensive foundation in the art of preparation and cookery in modular formats.

1.Basic Food Preparation and Cooking

In this course module, you will learn the fundamentals of the science of preparation and cookery ranging from vegetables, fish, meat, poultry and farinaceous items. Cookery principles are addressed and an explanation of wet and dry methods developed. Extensive use of commodities to create professional dishes within the timeframe.

2.Introduction to Kitchen Equipment and Health and Safety

This module introduces you to the practice of working with professional equipment and the health and safety implications in the workplace. Developing knowledge and understanding of the types of kitchen equipment, utensils and knives appropriate.

3.Food Safety in Catering

This module will introduce you to the knowledge you will need to enable you to take personal responsibility for food safety as well as understand the basic principles of food safety necessary for working in the hospitality and catering industry preparing food. The unit identifies some of the necessary good practice including the legal requirements that must be applied to food, its storage and cooking, as well as the basic principles of good practice needed to keep and maintain food areas/kitchens clean and safe.

SPECIAL NOTES regarding this course

Certain criteria have to be met to release the funding. Please DO NOT APPLY unless:

OPEN ONLY TO MEMBERS of the FOOD TEACHERS CENTRE

You are over 19 years
old, employed in the UK

You have approval from
your employer (you have to be employed in a school)

You have to submit a
completed and signed application form

You have permission for
release from school for three days, agreed funds from your school for
travel and accommodation BEFORE you apply

You can attend the FULL
3-day course, attendance for part of the course is not permitted.

THERE ARE LIMITED places, first completed applications secure a place. A waitlist will operate.

‘I would like to say a huge thank you to you and Chef Francis for the magnificent level 1 course in culinary Skills that I was lucky to take part in. Chef Francis advanced us all in such a short space of time and he has inspired me to cook and to be more confident in the kitchen. He is an excellent teacher and he made sure that we aimed high and produced the best work possible.'(teacher feedback from Feb 2018 course)

This session reviews what should you be teaching for best practice at Key Stage 3 and 4, some key classroom activities to motivate and deliver the content, and advice on the best free resources that you can use to save you time.

This course focuses on the new GCSE and how it is possible to support lower ability learners through the course and improve their performance. It provides intervention strategies and ideas that you can implement immediately with your Y10 and Y11. This course covers all boards AQA, EDUQAS and OCR.

GCSE and your lower ability learners: Overview

Issues for lower abilities.

Some common SEND and how these can be supported in class

Choosing your board and exam. What are the alternatives to the GCSE exam for lower ability learners?

Tools that help the content stick, making learning fun, grouping and questionning

Assessment

Effective differentiation and providing different amounts of support during the assessment process, scaffolding and intervention within the JCQ regulations Practice, mocks, tests, self-review/assessment and preparation for NEA

Where to gain marks in NEA1 and NEA 2

Brain science and what this tells us about how to prepare students for the written paper

Start and finish at any time! This is flexible 8 hour ‘home’ study, with experienced mentor support throughout, via phone email and on-line conferencing. Full accreditation. Only £120

Our on line course includes award of Level 2 Food Safety and accreditation for the national recognised framework for food teaching standards SECTION 9.1 to 9.6 ‘Implementing good hygiene and safety’ (listed in ‘Food teaching in secondary schools: A framework of knowledge and skills’ 2015 Public Health England, British Nutrition Foundation and Department for Education). Download this framework Here

This on-line course is designed for all who teach and support in food activities in schools.

Why do we recommend that you do this course and not just a Level 2?

This training leads Level 2 Food Safety certificate but offers much more for a practising food teacher. The course is delivered by experienced food teachers, so instead of a generic course about ‘Food Safety in Catering’ the content is delivered in the school context. It includes essential planning and teaching information, risk assessment and other documentation relating to safe working practices. It explains food hygiene and safety, personal hygiene and safety related directly to classroom practice.

Food Science tutorials are recorded presentations by Barbara Monks for food teachers. They teach you the food science of proteins, fats and carbohydrates so that you can confidently answer your pupil’s questions. Three separate presentations cover the chemical and physical aspects of each of the major food groups. You can follow them at your own pace and they take you step by step.

The presentations include ideas for ways to teach food science with images and photos to support the teacher and suggestions for delivering food investigations (NEA 1) as required by all the examination boards. Coverage is designed to meet the needs of practical food work whilst also including molecular level science. Key terms from GCSE Food preparation and nutrition specifications are explained and related to practical work.

Life changing cookery competition gives young cooks a true taste of the industry.

Since its launch in 2012, the Teflon™ Diamond Standard Awards has become a fantastic platform for young aspiring cooks across the UK. The title of Keen Young Cook Winner is so highly regarded by participants and schools, that the cookery competition has had 60% of the finalists taking positive action from the competition.

More than just a cookery competition, the opportunities that the Teflon™ Diamond Standard Awards provide are endless, not only for the winner, but, for all finalists. Out of the 12 Keen Young Cook finalists, the annual competition saw 5 of them re-apply for the 2018 competition, with 3 of them reaching the final and one of them going on to win the coveted Specialised Chefs Scholarship at the Bournemouth & Poole College.

Ethan Kirkby first entered the competition in 2017, he re-entered the competition after taking on board the tips and knowledge gained from reaching the final the previous year. Alongside Sarah Blockley, he won the 2018 Keen Young Cooks category and both winners are looking to enrol this September. Despite not winning, 2017 finalist Harry Essex didn’t re-enter but has gone on to enrol on the Specialised Chefs Scholarship after encouragement he received from the competition. The 2017 Keen Young Cook Winner Harriet Morgan-Barstow, continues to blossom as she is currently on placement at the Dorchester Hotel since starting her course. She also joined the panel as a guest judge for the 2018 National Final.

Entries are currently open for the 2019 Teflon™ Diamond Standard Awards and can be submitted individually or via schools and colleges. Entries close on 31st October 2018 with the national final scheduled for 23rd January 2019 at the Waitrose Cookery School, London. For more information on the competition and to enter please visit www.teflondsa.co.uk.

Schools Price! AQA or EDUQAS Revision Guide £3.99

COLLINS AQA & EDUQAS GCSE revision guide.

These two books are a must for any school, as they contain key information, worksheets and practice papers for either AQA or EDUQAS courses. Take your pick!

This new EDUQAS book has similar content to AQA version, but has EDUQAS style exam papers (two) and the content is divided into sections that reflect the EDUQAS specification. Schools price £3.99

Based on new research that proves repeated practice testing is more effective than repeated study, this revision series is guaranteed to help students achieve the best results.

Clear and accessible explanations

Concise revision notes

Seven practice opportunities for every topic covered in GCSE.

Best wishes from the Food Teachers Centre team

Volunteer Associates and Ambassadors throughout the UK with a passion for ‘Better Food Teaching’.

The Food Teachers Centre is a place of:

creative and innovative ideas and action

practical solutions

learning and sharing

If your organisation or company would like to work with us – please do get in touch at info@foodteacherscentre.co.uk

GCSE Results

Day 2018 News

We hope that this year’s results – GCSE and Vocational Courses brought the results that you deserve.

Please excuse our intrusion into your holday break, but we thought that you may like to know how your school has done compared with other schools in your locality, and for us to share the national average for the new GCSE.

We do hope that your results are as you expected and whatever your outcomes, we would like to extend our thanks and praise for the hard work and dedication that all food teachers have shown in implementing this new course under difficult circumstances of competing school subject priorities, budget cuts and the shortest lead time for development we have seen ever.

Everyone should be aware that the government reformulated GCSEs to make them harder to be in line with international standards. 2018 is the first cohort of the new Food Preparation and Nutrition GCSE – this was indeed the only new GCSE brought in by the government in their committment to make sure that every young person had the opportunity to learn to cook and learn about nutrition. As the first cohort, the candidates have not been disadvantaged as OFQUAL and exam boards have made sure that results are fair compared to previous years.

The Food Teachers Centre attended an OFQUAL briefing to hear Sally Collier, head of the Ofqual assessment, reassure teachers, parents and students – saying that although the new exams were more testing, the final grades would be fairly distributed and in the same way as in previous years.

The National Average for Food Preparation and Nutrition was 62.3% (Grades 4-9, equivalent A-C)

Here is a visual map of England by OFQUAL that shows the national results (best results being darkest)

This chart shows the results county by county.

County

Number of Students Entered

Average Grades 4-9 (A-C)

Northumberland

365

51.9

Cumbria

500

56.4

Tyne and Wear

685

65.5

Durham

580

67.7

Lancashire

1455

64.9

North Yorkshire

1145

63.6

East Riding of Yorkshire

490

64.7

West Yorkshire

2145

64.5

Greater Manchester

2740

63.1

Merseyside

845

61.5

Cheshire

915

61.6

Derbyshire

980

58.0

South Yorkshire

1040

59.2

Lincolnshire

845

59.5

Nottinghamshire

1000

57.3

Staffordshire

860

58.8

Shropshire

495

63.9

West Midlands

2375

55.7

Warwickshire

625

69.3

Leicestershire

1080

62.0

Rutland

95

64.6

Norfolk

975

62.5

Cambridgeshire

560

60.2

Northamptonshire

650

62.7

Gloucestershire

965

63.5

Worcestershire

755

58.2

Herefordshire

340

57.5

Oxfordshire

575

64.6

Buckinghamshire

780

62.6

Bedfordshire

520

61.4

Hertfordshire

1415

70.1

Suffolk

1015

65.6

Essex

1790

60.6

Greater London

4445

61.0

Berkshire

750

71.0

Wiltshire

630

61.6

Somerset

1050

59.9

Bristol

160

69.6

Devon

1265

58.6

Cornwall

700

62.5

Dorset

965

68.4

Hampshire

1905

60.3

Isle of Wight

90

68.5

West Sussex

795

61.7

Surrey

1135

72.6

East Sussex

800

62.5

Kent

1250

64.2

England Total

47540

62.3

Food Preparation and Nutrition compared to other subjects (grades 4 and above, all ages)

This shows that GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition is NO SOFT OPTION, it is as hard to pass as English and Maths!

Read the Moderators report on your NEA assessment for tips. If your board provides advice and support, send them spevcific questions. Consider becoming a moderator to understand the process better.

Read the Senior/Chief examiners report on the exam and check what is said about the exam paper.

Check that your school is providing the minimum exam board and OFQUAL requirements for the teaching and assessment of the GCSE. Turn this into an action plan to discuss with your senior leaders and exam officers. This should include:

120 guided learning hours before assessement takes place

Sufficient preparation and practice time ahead of NEA release to candidates

Adequate provision for practical work for NEA 2

Adequate revision and practice schedule for the written exam, including school wide exam technique workshops

register for our on-line training or face to face training days to help you improve your teaching. These are advertised regularly in the Facebook group, on our website and on our Eventbrite Pages. We suggest that you make a case in your school to acces valuable traning :

Attend ‘Food Boost’ on Saturday 3rd November – we will be reviewing all the exam results and there are workshops for each exam course to help you improve and gain clarity and great ideas

Attend ‘GCSE Boost for levels 1-4’ if you are concerned that your lower ability and borderline candidates would benefit from planned interventions

Attend ‘Schools Game Changer’ if you are looking for extra NEA 2 help

Register and Learn at your own pace with ‘Barbara Monk’s Food Science Tutorials’ if you need help in building your subject knowledge and ideas for teaching how to apply the science.

register for our free mentoring programme, so that you can be matched with an experienced teacher who teaches the same board, who will be able to offer you advice and guidance. Sign up here.

Coming up! Training days to help you

FOOD BOOST!

SATURDAY 3rd November 9.30-3.45

National Face to Face event at

University of West London, Ealing

This national training day will bring hundreds of food teachers together for a unique set of workshops and practical cooking skills sessions that focus on new qualifications (GCSE and Vocational Levels 1-3), reviewing your results and moving forward with planning and delivery. Bookings open soon

What we can learn from 2018’s exam results for GCSE and Vocational courses

How to improve your course and student performance

Developing an intervention plan for Y10-11

Intervention strategies that work

Free resources to improve your teaching

Your presenter:

As founder of the Food Teachers Centre, Louise has won awards for her work with the community (2018 Outstanding Contribution to D&T Excellence Award, Global Excellence 2017 Best Nutritional Health School Engagement programme and 2017 Best Public Health Sugar Reduction Awareness Campaign) and is recognized by Facebook as a Power Admin for one of the “most active, engaging and influential groups on the Facebook platform”. She works with the United Nations developing a White Paper on School Food for low income countries. She advised DfE on the new GCSE 2014-16, as well as being OFQUAL’s current subject expert for D&T, Food Preparation & Nutrition and Hospitality and Catering exams. Her teaching resources have been used all over the world for by D&T/Food teachers.

Keynote –Mark. Plan. Teach. in Food

Ross Morrison McGill – Teacher Toolkit

With teacher workload and mental health issues at record levels, ideas that work in the classroom to alleviate workload and support teacher wellbeing are essential. Ross offers food teachers a range of strategies and insights into ‘what teachers can do in the classroom’ and ‘why and how’ they work. Ross’s presentation is full of practical ideas which deliberately mirror the teaching process.

Mark. Plan. Teach.

shows how each stage of the teaching process informs the next, building a cyclical framework that underpins everything that food teachers do.

enables all food teachers to maximise the impact of their teaching and, in doing so, save time, reduce workload and take back control of the classroom.

Your presenter:

Ross Morrison McGill has been very popular at Food Teachers Centre events, as a D&T teacher and school leader with 23 years experience. He has written 3 books on teaching and is passionate about teacher well-being and teaching and learning. In 2010, he founded @TeacherToolkit, rapidly becoming one of the most popular websites for sharing resources and ideas around the world.

@TeacherToolkit, is the most followed teacher on Twitter in the UK. His practical, inspiring lesson ideas are what make him so successful. His 5 Minute Lesson Plan is used by teachers all over the world! In 2015 he was listed in the Debrett’s 500 as one of the ‘most influential people in Britain’ and in education. He is the bestselling author of 100 Ideas for Secondary Teachers: Outstanding Lessons and Teacher Toolkit.

This session reviews what should you be teaching for best practice at Key Stage 3 and 4, some key classroom activities to motivate and deliver the content, and advice on the best free resources that you can use to save you time.

This course focuses on the new GCSE and how it is possible to support lower ability learners through the course and improve their performance. It provides intervention strategies and ideas that you can implement immediately with your Y10 and Y11. This course covers all boards AQA, EDUQAS and OCR.

GCSE and your lower ability learners: Overview

Issues for lower abilities.

Some common SEND and how these can be supported in class

Choosing your board and exam. What are the alternatives to the GCSE exam for lower ability learners?

Tools that help the content stick, making learning fun, grouping and questionning

Assessment

Effective differentiation and providing different amounts of support during the assessment process, scaffolding and intervention within the JCQ regulations Practice, mocks, tests, self-review/assessment and preparation for NEA

Where to gain marks in NEA1 and NEA 2

Brain science and what this tells us about how to prepare students for the written paper

Start and finish at any time! This is flexible 8 hour ‘home’ study, with experienced mentor support throughout, via phone email and on-line conferencing. Full accreditation. Only £120

Our on line course includes award of Level 2 Food Safety and accreditation for the national recognised framework for food teaching standards SECTION 9.1 to 9.6 ‘Implementing good hygiene and safety’ (listed in ‘Food teaching in secondary schools: A framework of knowledge and skills’ 2015 Public Health England, British Nutrition Foundation and Department for Education). Download this framework Here

This on-line course is designed for all who teach and support in food activities in schools.

Why do we recommend that you do this course and not just a Level 2?

This training leads Level 2 Food Safety certificate but offers much more for a practising food teacher. The course is delivered by experienced food teachers, so instead of a generic course about ‘Food Safety in Catering’ the content is delivered in the school context. It includes essential planning and teaching information, risk assessment and other documentation relating to safe working practices. It explains food hygiene and safety, personal hygiene and safety related directly to classroom practice.

Food Science tutorials are recorded presentations by Barbara Monks for food teachers. They teach you the food science of proteins, fats and carbohydrates so that you can confidently answer your pupil’s questions. Three separate presentations cover the chemical and physical aspects of each of the major food groups. You can follow them at your own pace and they take you step by step.

The presentations include ideas for ways to teach food science with images and photos to support the teacher and suggestions for delivering food investigations (NEA 1) as required by all the examination boards. Coverage is designed to meet the needs of practical food work whilst also including molecular level science. Key terms from GCSE Food preparation and nutrition specifications are explained and related to practical work.

We know that many of you are preparing for the first ever written paper for GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition this week. It is both nerve-racking and exciting. Good Luck to everyone!

1 New Revision Resources – free and low cost

We are really pleased that SENECA managed to get a beta version of their free new revision app out in time for many of your classes. If you have not seen it, it wont be too late for your Year 10s who are going into Year 11. Access the app

We are asking around to see if any teachers know of people that might have time to volunteer for Bags of Taste. We are happy to be promoting this project, you can find out more by visiting the Bags of Taste website or watching the BBC documentary about them. There are things that we all care about:

Tackling health inequalities through food

Delicious recipes for less than £1 a portion

Cooking courses that drive behaviour change

Volunteering opportunities

They have just started a new group in Sheffield, so feel free to see if you can help them get set up, or check out the others around the country too.

3. Facebook improvements

Recently Facebook have been letting us test some great new features to make our closed group an even better place to share good practice and learn from each other. We have used the Polls feature to do surveys in the past and this has been updated. We are also making great use of the new TOPICS (these are threads where posts about the same thing can be grouped under a Topic). We have made good use of this to post all the vacancies and job hunters in one place to make it easy to look for a new job or find staff. Come inside the group, as many of these features do not work if you only view the posts in your newsfeed.

4. KickStart programme for NEETS

Springboard’s KickStart programme specialises in supporting young people, who are at risk of leaving full-time education without a positive outcome (i.e. Not in Education, Employment or Training), towards further education opportunities, apprenticeships and/or careers in the hospitality, leisure and tourism industry.

The programme offers one week of employability skills and personal capabilities training, two week work placements within Springboard’s hospitality Business Partners, and over six months aftercare to support sustained education, apprenticeship, and/or job outcomes

Competitions can help give food teaching a high profile in your school

Well Done to Alan Kaid, Subject Leader for Food Preparation and Nutrition and BTEC Level 3 Hospitality at Emirates International School. Alan attended a Food Teachers Centre training event last year. He was so inspired by the keynote from Louise, that he took her advice and entered his pupils for a competition, to raise the profile of the subject in his school. You can watch the grand final TV show here– Amazing

Congratulations to our first group to achieve

‘Introduction to Culinary Skills Certificate’ (City and Guilds and Westminster Kingsway College accredited)

This course is designed for those with no food qualifications, and for some, is their first food accreditation. A presentation will be held for them, and their guests on THURSDAY 12th July. But if you would like to attend, please RSVP here.

Everyone will be presented with a certificate and ‘In a Class of Its Own’ Book.

Congratulations to:

Jen

Allwood

Ivana

Al-Sakkaf

Anthea

Baker

Kate

Bravo

Fiona

Budd

Veronica

De Silva

Julie

Greatorex

Debbie

Neal

Kate

O’Sullivan

Claire

Parsons

Marie

Sylvester

Elzbieta

Szumielewicz

Jennifer

Whalley

Schools Game Changer programme

Master classes have been taking place all over the country

Taste of Game masterclasses are delivered across the country and include:

– where game comes from, and what the different meats are

– key skills such as portioning, mincing and cooking game

– cooking and tasting great game (pheasant) recipes.

This is then followed up with a free game delivery for the class to be able to implement their new skills.

Look for for the new registration in the autumn ready fo the new game season.

For those teaching GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition, and Level 3 Diploma in Food Science and Nutrition. There will be an exciting combination of food science demonstrations, presentations on careers and skills needed in the food science industry and workshops of best practice in delivering the current GCSE (AQA, EDUQAS, OCR) and WJEC Diploma courses.

Key Note presenter

Stefan Gates is a television presenter, author, broadcaster and live-show performer who writes mostly about food and science. You will have seen his recent BBC programmes – Secret Life of your Favourite Dishes and Gasto Lab. He has written six books about extraordinary food and cooking, and has presented 14 TV series mostly for the BBC, including Cooking in the Danger Zone about unusual food from the world’s more dangerous and difficult places. He develops half of these TV series himself, including the CBBC children’s food adventure series Gastronuts and Incredible Edibles. Stefan presented BBC One’s Food Factory.

A full day packed with workshops and presentations to help you:

– Make food science exciting for your pupils, so that they remember and apply key concepts when investigating and cooking

– Improve performance in GCSE and Level 3 Diploma with tips and best practice from experienced practitioners teaching these courses in their schools

– Save time by learning about new high-quality teaching resources and how to plan, teach and assess your course effectively. This event covers all aspects of food science including

o Microbiology and food safety

o Functional properties of nutrients and ingredients

o Nutrition

o Future Food and sustainability issues

– Update your understanding of careers in the food science and technology sector, so that you can speak confidently to parents and students about future skills

Attend an exam board specific workshop to embed the teaching of food science in KS3, GCSE and beyond, including advice on improving the management of NEA and GCSE.

DRAFT PROGRAMME

9.30-
10.20

Introduction:

Welcome – James Edmunds, Dean of
London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism

‘Why Food Science is so important for young
people’ Louise Davies, Founder of The Food Teachers Centre

‘Careers and Future Skills’

John
Bassett, Policy and Scientific
Development Director of the Institute of Food Science and Technology
(IFST)

10.30-
11.50

Exam focused workshops – embedding the teaching
of food science in KS3, GCSE and beyond advice on improving the management of
NEA and performance in GCSE. How to
plan, teach and assess.

Choice of 3

1. Focus on AQA (Barbara
Monks, Food Teachers Centre)

2. Focus on EDUQAS (Jacqui
Keepin, Food Teachers Centre)

3. Focus on OCR (Sandra
Heinze, Hall Mead School)

12.00-
12.40

12.45-1.30

Workshops- for GCSE and Level 3
Diploma/Certificate

Workshop 1 (Choice of 4)

·
1a Sensory Science (Jack and Scott, University of West London)

·
1b How to develop and deliver the new Level 3 Certificate and
Diploma WJEC Year 12 Unit 1 (Sally
Rowe, Chancellors School)

This course focuses on the new GCSE and how it is possible to support lower ability learners through the course and improve their performance. It provides intervention strategies and ideas that you can implement immediately with your Y10 and Y11. This course covers all boards AQA, EDUQAS and OCR.

£180 +VAT

For further information please click on any of the links

GCSE and your lower ability learners: Overview

– What are the issues for lower ability learners on the new courses and how can they be addressed?

– Some common SEND and how these can be supported in class

o Specific Learning Difficulties such as Dyslexia, Dyspraxia

o Moderate Learning Difficulties

– Choosing your board and exam. What are the alternatives to the GCSE exam for lower ability learners?

– Examining the specific issues in your group and developing an intervention plan to increase performance

Each workshop focuses on a particular exam course. There are two parts to the day. In the morning, you will work alongside an experienced teacher practitioner who guides you through how they have successfully planned and taught the course, how they have addressed issues and gained good performance from their students. The afternoon is a hands-on practical skills session to develop your knowledge understanding and personal skills.

£180 +VAT

For further information please click on any of the links

Planning and teaching your exam course – Guest Teacher presenter

– What Year 9 looks like to prepare for the exam course

– How to approach options evenings, options choices and selling the course

– Getting started in Y10 – inspiration to motivate students at the start of the course and setting boundaries and expectations, getting parents and the rest of the school on board

– Developing knowledge and practical skills side by side throughout Y10 – ideas for lessons that work

– Setting homework, assessments and mocks.

– Approaching Year 11 scheme of work – what it looks like

– Getting help with scheduling and organizing NEA– issues and solutions

– Giving generic feedback and supporting all abilities

– Revision for the examination and strategies for approaching the paper.

Start and finish at any time! This is flexible 8 hour ‘home’ study, with experienced mentor support throughout, via phone email and on-line conferencing. Full accreditation. Only £120

Our on line course includes award of Level 2 Food Safety and accreditation for the national recognised framework for food teaching standards SECTION 9.1 to 9.6 ‘Implementing good hygiene and safety’ (listed in ‘Food teaching in secondary schools: A framework of knowledge and skills’ 2015 Public Health England, British Nutrition Foundation and Department for Education). Download this framework Here

This on-line course is designed for all who teach and support in food activities in school, this includes teachers, technicians, teaching assistants / higher-level teaching assistants, trainee teachers, special needs support staff and cookery club leaders.

Why do we recommend that you do this course and not just a Level 2?

This training leads Level 2 Food Safety certificate but offers much more for a practising food teacher. The course is delivered by experienced food teachers, so instead of a generic course about ‘Food Safety in Catering’ the content is delivered in the school context. It includes essential planning and teaching information, risk assessment and other documentation relating to safe working practices. It explains food hygiene and safety, personal hygiene and safety related directly to classroom practice.

Food Science tutorials are recorded presentations by Barbara Monks for food teachers. They teach you the food science of proteins, fats and carbohydrates so that you can confidently answer your pupil’s questions. Three separate presentations cover the chemical and physical aspects of each of the major food groups. You can follow them at your own pace and they take you step by step.

The presentations include ideas for ways to teach food science with images and photos to support the teacher and suggestions for delivering food investigations (NEA 1) as required by all the examination boards. Coverage is designed to meet the needs of practical food work whilst also including molecular level science. Key terms from GCSE Food preparation and nutrition specifications are explained and related to practical work.

We know that the Easter holidays will be a busy time for teachers with marking and preparing for the summer term exams, so the whole team are on standby to answer your questions in the on-line community.

Outstanding Contribution to Design and Technology Award

Congratulations to Louise, Founder of the Food Teachers Centre as she received the highest award possible from the D&T Association at a ceremony at the end of March.

Her nomination was voted for by the Board of Trustees as:

“a tireless innovator, established and acknowledged as an outstanding leader in the field, for well over a quarter of a century. Louise inspires great loyalty from those she leads and works with.

An early high achiever, going from teaching to teacher education at a young age, she became Deputy Director of the Royal College of Art Schools Technology Project in the 1990s, developing much of the early work in food as relevant to a society largely dependent on industrial scale production. She went on the provide a strong voice for the subject at the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) and subsequently the Design and Technology Association. The latter benefitted from her clear understanding of the relationship of food education to D&T, strong links with industry and her effective networking.

Having founded the Food Teachers Centre, Louise remains at the forefront of food education nationally providing training to 5,000 teachers over the last two years alone. She works to support all pupils and has been particularly strong in championing provision for those with different learning needs, including a new publication in 2017.

As an independent consultant, she remains a powerful voice recently co-opted by the United Nations as a contributor to their food and nutrition education white paper and conference.

Louise is an inspiration to thousands, as a producer of materials to support teachers and learners throughout the UK and beyond and a passionate advocate for the subject”.

Give food teaching a high profile in your school

Alan Kaid, Subject Leader for Food Preparation and Nutrition and BTEC Level 3 Hospitality at Emirates International School attended a Food Teachers Centre training event last year. He was so inspired by the keynote from Louise, that he decided to take her advice and enter his pupils for a competition, to raise the profile of the subject in his school.

Alan describes what happens next…. ‘What dreams are made of!’

The winners of TV reality show “Foodshala”Emirates International School Jumeirah (EISJ)proudly hold the Champions cup pictured with Principal Mr David Hicks.

The competition is the first of its kind over 50 schools participated to win the prize for master chef and an exciting trip Disneyland. Only 13 schools were entered into the league rounds, EISJ being the last of the qualifiers. Our three student contestants were Taksh Giridhar Grade 9, Vashitaa Prasad Grade 7 and Yehia Alhelaly Grade 2. Yehia had showed much flair demonstrating his culinary skills, cooking throughout each of the rounds. The competition was tough and very competitive with young talented chefs throughout the region. Yehia,Taksh and Varshitaa practiced every day so that they could perform at their very best planning, cooking and trying out new recipe twists. The days would be long and tiresome before the camera crew were ready to finally film and shoot.

The first aspects the judges looked for was the idea, and taste, appearance, the range of technical skills used and the presentation and execution of the dish. Each judge was selectively picked with key titles from around the region, celebrity chefs included Iranian Michelin Chef Mansour Memarian and Spanish Chef Mariano Andres Puerta.

Recognised for his Indian cuisines Celebrity Chef Sanjeev Kapoor, entrepreneur, writer and television personality was to judge the finals based on the theme “A meal fit for a king”. Teams were required to prepare and cook a starter, main course and dessert within 2 hours of cooking time; the clock was ticking as Sanjeev made his round to each work station asking our students various questions on their 3 chosen dishes.

Taksh, Varshitaa and Yehia showed great passion and team spirit, stayed focused as they went into full drive preparing and creating dishes, I remember there was a positive buzz between our students as they mixed, blended and stir ingredients for the last time. A very tense round for everyone, when Sanjeev calls out time for all contestants to stop cooking. All parents and teams watching anxiously and extremely tense as Sanjeev gave his evaluation of what he thought of each dish, his words were very specific and detailed indeed. If you’re a food fanatic or just enjoy reality shows especially as entertaining as our EIS students you can watch the final series on Zee Aflam and ZEETV, Foodshala first ever interschool regional cooking competition 2018 is finally here.

We often feature competitions in our newsletter – have a go to raise the profile of the subject in your school.

Enter the ‘Design A Bag’ competition featured in this newsletter. It takes just a few moment sto set the challenge as a homework! Imagine what would happen when the Olympic team come to your school – that would be amazing.

Don’t miss our award winning training events

NEA Together

Help with GCSE Marking, moderation and revision for the written exam.

If you did not attend your local meeting, we offer a digital ticket for £10 donation so that you can watch the videos as many times as you like at home or at schoolBook here

For those teaching GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition, and Level 3 Diploma in Food Science and Nutrition. There will be an exciting combination of food science demonstrations, presentations on careers and skills needed in the food science industry and workshops of best practice in delivering the current GCSE (AQA, EDUQAS, OCR) and WJEC Diploma courses.

Key Note presenter

Stefan Gates is a television presenter, author, broadcaster and live-show performer who writes mostly about food and science. You will have seen his recent BBC programmes – Secret Life of your Favourite Dishes and Gasto Lab. He has written six books about extraordinary food and cooking, and has presented 14 TV series mostly for the BBC, including Cooking in the Danger Zone about unusual food from the world’s more dangerous and difficult places. He develops half of these TV series himself, including the CBBC children’s food adventure series Gastronuts and Incredible Edibles. Stefan presented BBC One’s Food Factory.

A full day packed with workshops and presentations to help you:

– Make food science exciting for your pupils, so that they remember and apply key concepts when investigating and cooking

– Improve performance in GCSE and Level 3 Diploma with tips and best practice from experienced practitioners teaching these courses in their schools

– Save time by learning about new high-quality teaching resources and how to plan, teach and assess your course effectively. This event covers all aspects of food science including

o Microbiology and food safety

o Functional properties of nutrients and ingredients

o Nutrition

o Future Food and sustainability issues

– Update your understanding of careers in the food science and technology sector, so that you can speak confidently to parents and students about future skills

Attend an exam board specific workshop to embed the teaching of food science in KS3, GCSE and beyond, including advice on improving the management of NEA and GCSE.

This course focuses on the new GCSE and how it is possible to support lower ability learners through the course and improve their performance. It provides intervention strategies and ideas that you can implement immediately with your Y10 and Y11. This course covers all boards AQA, EDUQAS and OCR.

£180 +VAT

For further information please click on any of the links or see our brochure

Each workshop focuses on a particular exam course. There are two parts to the day. In the morning, you will work alongside an experienced teacher practitioner who guides you through how they have successfully planned and taught the course, how they have addressed issues and gained good performance from their students. The afternoon is a hands-on practical skills session to develop your knowledge understanding and personal skills.

£180 +VAT

For further information please click on any of the links or see our brochure

This free half day conference, aimed at new, less experienced or
non-specialist food teachers, will be an ideal opportunity to develop your
professional practice, find out about robust and relevant resources, update
your nutrition knowledge and network with like-minded, professional food
colleagues. There will also be an opportunity to experience the excellent
facilities that Sheffield Hallam University has to offer students wishing to
pursue a career in food and nutrition. The day’s presenters will be staff from the British Nutrition
Foundation and Sheffield Hallam University, and volunteers from the Food Teachers Centre. The day is funded by a grant given by the All Saints Educational
Trust, so that teachers may be given fully subsidised places.

Also for non -specialist teachers or those that would like accreditation

FULLY FUNDED

‘Introduction to Culinary Skills Certificate’

2-4th July (3 day course)

The Westminster Introduction to Culinary Skills Certificate is an 18 hour hands-on certificate programme in professional cookery education that offers expert tuition, fit for purpose equipment and facilities, top-quality ingredients and tuition in classic and contemporary European recipes. In eighteen hours total, you will experience a comprehensive foundation in the art of preparation and cookery in modular formats.

1.Basic Food Preparation and Cooking

2.Introduction to Kitchen Equipment and Health and Safety

3.Food Safety in Catering

NOTE NOTE NOTE

Certain criteria have to be met to release the funding

– you have to be over 19 years old

– have approval from your employer (you have to be employed in a school)

– you have to submit a completed and signed application form (by your employer) before the course

– you should get permission for release from school, travel and accomodation BEFORE you apply

– you have to attend the whole 3 day course

It is NOT intended for those with food qualifications and skills. It is suited for non specialist teachers, technicians and other school staff and those who have NO FOOD ACCREDITATION.

REGISTRATIONS OPEN EARLY MAY

THERE ARE ONLY 15 places, first completed applications secure a place.

Start and finish at any time! This is flexible 8 hour ‘home’ study, with experienced mentor support throughout, via phone email and on-line conferencing. Full accreditation. Only £120

Our on line course includes award of Level 2 Food Safety and accreditation for the national recognised framework for food teaching standards SECTION 9.1 to 9.6 ‘Implementing good hygiene and safety’ (listed in ‘Food teaching in secondary schools: A framework of knowledge and skills’ 2015 Public Health England, British Nutrition Foundation and Department for Education). Download this framework Here

This on-line course is designed for all who teach and support in food activities in school, this includes teachers, technicians, teaching assistants / higher-level teaching assistants, trainee teachers, special needs support staff and cookery club leaders.

Why do we recommend that you do this course and not just a Level 2?

This training leads Level 2 Food Safety certificate but offers much more for a practising food teacher. The course is delivered by experienced food teachers, so instead of a generic course about ‘Food Safety in Catering’ the content is delivered in the school context. It includes essential planning and teaching information, risk assessment and other documentation relating to safe working practices. It explains food hygiene and safety, personal hygiene and safety related directly to classroom practice.

Food Science tutorials are recorded presentations by Barbara Monks for food teachers. They teach you the food science of proteins, fats and carbohydrates so that you can confidently answer your pupil’s questions. Three separate presentations cover the chemical and physical aspects of each of the major food groups. You can follow them at your own pace and they take you step by step.

The presentations include ideas for ways to teach food science with images and photos to support the teacher and suggestions for delivering food investigations (NEA 1) as required by all the examination boards. Coverage is designed to meet the needs of practical food work whilst also including molecular level science. Key terms from GCSE Food preparation and nutrition specifications are explained and related to practical work.

Taste of Game have been providing free game for cooking in schools, and with the recruitment and training of a team of Schools Amabassadors, many more schools will now benefit from student masterclasses. These student masterclasses are delivered by experienced chefs, who are DBS checked, and are able to work with a number of classes to introduce

– where game comes from, and what the different meats are

– demonstration of key skills such as portioning, mincing and cooking game

– inspire cooking by showing receipes that they love to make

– allow students to taste dishes and cook with the class (with the support of the teacher)

Fantastic schools competition! Closing date 4th May

Design a reusable bag that will inspire people to eat fresh fruit and vegetables

‘Design a bag’ competition follows research from Aldi that revealed children’s eating habits

Children in primary schools are more likely to eat healthily compared to secondary school age pupils, according to new research by Aldi commissioned as part of the supermarket chain’s Get Set to Eat Fresh campaign with Team GB.

The Get Set to Eat Fresh programme, which has been shortlisted for the ‘Community Programme of the Year’ award at the forthcoming BT Sport Industry Awards 2018, is committed to improving the healthy eating habits of 1.2 million children by 2020. Aldi interviewed 1,000 children aged 7–14 in the UK to find out about their healthy eating habits, in a bid to understand how education can play a part in developing children’s understanding of the value of nutritious food.

The findings from the research revealed a drop-off in healthy eating habits between primary and secondary school aged children, with 72% of 7–8-year olds likely to eat fruit daily and only 59% of 13–14-year olds likely to eat fruit daily.

Overall, the research discovered that children expressed a strong interest in wanting to improve their healthy eating habits. Despite 50% of the children interviewed admitting that they ate fast food or takeaways at least once a week, 41% want to eat healthily more often and almost half (45%) said the most effective way to teach children about eating healthily was through lessons in school and talking to teachers.

To help improve healthy eating habits and launch the next phase of Get Set to Eat Fresh, Aldi and Team GB are launching a ‘Design a bag’ competition across England, Scotland and Wales. The competition challenges young people aged 5–14 to get creative and design a re-usable ‘Bag for Life’ that will inspire others to eat fresh fruit and vegetables.

The judges!

The competition will be judged by Team GB’s favourite brothers, Alistair Brownlee and Jonny Brownlee, together with Food Teachers Centre founder Louise Davies

Commenting on the competition, Alistair Brownlee said:

“The Get Set to Eat Fresh programme is going from strength to strength. The ‘Design a bag’ competition is another great way to get young people thinking about how to eat a healthier diet. We can’t wait to see what they come up with!”

Jonny Brownlee added:

“Educating children on the importance of fuelling their bodies with the right foods is something both Alistair and I are passionate about.

“The resources offered as part of the Get Set to Eat Fresh campaign can help teachers bring this important topic to life in fun, engaging ways, and the competition will only help highlight the importance of nutrition. We encourage children all over the country to take part in this brilliant competition and get talking about healthy eating with their classmates!”

Grow, Cook, Eat with RHS

RHS horticulturists have teamed up with the Food Teachers Centre to provide a practical course to enable you to put primary pupils’ health and wellbeing at the centre of your school with an ethos and culture of great food. Attending this primary course will give you hands-on opportunities to learn some of the key skills needed to grow and cook with your own produce.

Mary Nestor describes how the School Game Changer programme has helped her students GCSE skills.

Working with the United Nations at the first international consultation on school based food and nutrition education.

Grow, Cook and Eat primary training courses with RHS.

Free sample starting points for Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and Dyscalculia from a new book ‘ Addressing SEND in the Curriculum D&T’.

New Collins EDUQAS revision guide.

Food Teachers Centre Outstanding Contribution Award for January 2018.

Got a careers or options evening coming up, or a ‘Drop-down’ day? Get an Ambassador to visit your school – put the subject on the map.

Coming soon – watch out for announcements on our summer term training courses. We are planning days for special needs, for improving GCSE grades for students at 1-4, and sharing best practice on delivering exam courses – GCSE, and BTEC, NCFE, WJEC Level 1/2 Technical/Vocational Awards, plus Level 3 Diploma Food Science and Nutrition.

We are very happy to report that the Food Teachers Centre Community was awarded ‘Best Sugar Reduction Campaign’ for the work that all our teachers have achieved in educating young people about sugar. Many exciting classroom activities have been shared as we have implemented new recipes and lesson plans focused towards savoury dishes together as a community. We have loved ‘Re-think your Drink’!

the number of schools placing significant or moderate emphasis on teaching savoury dishes increased from 90% in 2014 to 95% in 2017, and those placing significant or moderate emphasis on cooking sweet dishes reduced from 66% in 2014 to 33% in 2017.

In 2017-18 for the first time in a GCSE, the practical examination paper challenges students to investigate how to successfully reduce sugar in cakes. To achieve their GCSE, they have to demonstrate their understanding of the science behind sugar reduction, and the functional, chemical and nutritional properties of sugar.

What impressed the judges the most what just how much our community had achieved together by sharing and supporting each other – with no government funding or sponsorship. We made it happen across the country!

Congratulations to all teachers that have been part of this big picture. Barbara Monks received the trophy on behalf of you all.

We are at the front line of teaching all young people how they can make positive changes to their diet. We empower them with the knowledge and skills to scrutinise their own meal choices, create and cook new reduced sugar recipes and understand food labels.

All those useful files that were shared are archived in the Resource Bank so do join that.

And our second recent Award is that of Power Admin Status at Facebook, as we were recognised as one of the most ‘active,engaging and influential groups of the facebook platform’. This status means that we have direct discussion with facebook staff about developing the group, can ask them to create features that we need, and we are the first to try our new features released for groups. Facebook has done a lot to improve the way the closed groups operate, so we hope you are pleased with the new look.

Our closed group is now 4,200 teachers, who are very active. As an example of the activity, every month there are about 18,000 posts, conversations and responses. Just brilliant support for food teachers every day.

You can find instructions on how to join our closed group on Facebook and be part of the community of support and action on our website here.

If you are not a food teacher, you can always follow up public news page.

Are you a non specialist teacher?

FULLY FUNDED Saturday 12 May 2018 09.00-1.30pm SHEFFIELD

Food teaching for the less experienced

This free half day conference, aimed at new, less experienced or
non-specialist food teachers, will be an ideal opportunity to develop your
professional practice, find out about robust and relevant resources, update
your nutrition knowledge and network with like-minded, professional food
colleagues. There will also be an opportunity to experience the excellent
facilities that Sheffield Hallam University has to offer students wishing to
pursue a career in food and nutrition.

The day’s presenters will be staff from the British Nutrition
Foundation and Sheffield Hallam University, and volunteers from the Food Teachers Centre.

The day is funded by a grant given by the All Saints Educational
Trust, so that teachers may be given fully subsidised places.

PLEASE NOTE: this event is not suitable for
very experienced food teachers. In addition, the content will be very similar
to the FTPP conference for less experienced food teachers held in London in
May 2017 so please do not book to attend if you came along to this event.

Also for non -specialist teachers or those that would like accreditation

FULLY FUNDED

‘Introduction to Culinary Skills Certificate’

2-4th July (3 day course)

We are delighted to be working with the prestigious Westminster Kingsway College, London again to bring teachers, support staff and technicians who do not have any food qualifications a chance for training and recognition.

This is a FULLY FUNDED three day course ‘Westminster & Pearson Introduction to Culinary Skills’ .

Course Description: The Westminster Introduction to Culinary Skills Certificate is an 18 hour hands-on certificate programme in professional cookery education that offers expert tuition, fit for purpose equipment and facilities, top-quality ingredients and tuition in classic and contemporary European recipes. In eighteen hours total, you will experience a comprehensive foundation in the art of preparation and cookery in modular formats.

1.Basic Food Preparation and Cooking

In this course module, you will learn the fundamentals of the science of preparation and cookery ranging from vegetables, fish, meat, poultry and farinaceous items.Cookery principles are addressed and an explanation of wet and dry methods developed. Extensive use of commodities to create professional dishes within the timeframe.

2.Introduction to Kitchen Equipment and Health and Safety

This module introduces you to the practice of working with professional equipment and the health and safety implications in the workplace. Developing knowledge and understanding of the types of kitchen equipment, utensils and knives appropriate.

3.Food Safety in Catering

This module will introduce you to the knowledge you will need to enable you to take personal responsibility for food safety as well as understand the basic principles of food safety necessary for working in the hospitality and catering industry preparing food. The unit identifies some of the necessary good practice including the legal requirements that must be applied to food, its storage and cooking, as well as the basic principles of good practice needed to keep and maintain food areas/kitchens clean and safe.

NOTE NOTE NOTE

Certain criteria have to be met to release the funding

– you have to be over 19 years old

– have approval from your employer (you have to be employed in a school)

– you have to submit a completed and signed application form (by your employer) before the course

– you should get permission for release from school, travel and accomodation BEFORE you apply

– you have to attend the whole 3 day course

It is NOT intended for those with food qualifications and skills. It is suited for non specialist teachers, technicians and other school staff and those who have NO FOOD ACCREDITATION.

REGISTRATIONS OPEN EARLY MAY

THERE ARE ONLY 15 places, first completed applications secure a place.

‘I would like to say a huge thank you to you and Chef Francis for the magnificent level 1 course in culinary Skills that I was lucky to take part in. Chef Francis advanced us all in such a short space of time and he has inspired me to cook and to be more confident in the kitchen. He is an excellent teacher and he made sure that we aimed high and produced the best work possible.'(teacher feedback from Feb 2018 course)

Get help with GCSE Marking, moderation and revision for the written exam before Easter holidays

Start any time as this is 8 hour ‘home’ study, with experienced mentor support throughout, via phone email and on-line conferencing. Full accreditation.

Only £120

Our on line course includes award of Level 2 Food Safety and accreditation for the national recognised framework for food teaching standards SECTION 9.1 to 9.6 ‘Implementing good hygiene and safety’ (listed in ‘Food teaching in secondary schools: A framework of knowledge and skills’ 2015 Public Health England, British Nutrition Foundation and Department for Education). Download this framework Here

Who is this on-line course for?

This on-line course is designed for all who teach and support in food activities in school, this includes teachers, technicians, teaching assistants / higher-level teaching assistants, trainee teachers, special needs support staff and cookery club leaders.

Everyone who works with food has a special responsibility for safeguarding the health and well-being of their learners. This course also helps your school meet Ofsted requirements for ‘safeguarding’. This course is designed specifically for those working in schools; as it delivers the Level 2 content with school examples to make it relevant to your everyday work. It also helps you teach elements of food safety confidently at KS3-KS5.

Why do we recommend that you do this course and not just a Level 2?

This training leads Level 2 Food Safety certificate but offers much more for a practising food teacher. The course is delivered by experienced food teachers, so instead of a generic course about ‘Food Safety in Catering’ the content is delivered in the school context. It includes essential planning and teaching information, risk assessment and other documentation relating to safe working practices. It explains food hygiene and safety, personal hygiene and safety related directly to classroom practice.

Spend time with experienced colleagues to:

Share good practice to ensure a high standard of food safety and hygiene in the classroom

Gain confidence to work safely with pupils when delivering food activities

Food Science tutorials are recorded presentations by Barbara Monks for food teachers. They teach you the food science of proteins, fats and carbohydrates so that you can confidently answer your pupil’s questions. Three separate presentations cover the chemical and physical aspects of each of the major food groups. You can follow them at your own pace and they take you step by step.

Topics are fully illustrated and cover all the food science requirements of the GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition examination for all examination boards. (AQA, Eduqas and OCR)

The presentations include ideas for ways to teach food science with images and photos to support the teacher and suggestions for delivering food investigations (NEA 1) as required by all the examination boards. Coverage is designed to meet the needs of practical food work whilst also including molecular level science. Key terms from GCSE Food preparation and nutrition specifications are explained and related to practical work.

Who is this for?

The tutorials are designed for teachers who teach and support food activities at Key Stage 3 and 4. They are particularly suitable for those teachers preparing students for GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition. It is appropriate for those who work alongside teachers such as technicians, science teachers and non-specialist teachers.

Mary Nestor at Knowle Academy describes the impact of the programme on her GCSE classes

All four Year 10 GCSE groups at Knowle Academy were given the opportunity to work with and explore different types of game. We were very fortunate to have local produce supplied from the Penshurst Estate and the Taste of Game. The game supplied included a brace of ducks, pheasants, wood pigeons, partridge, rabbit and goose.

The students were treated to a demonstration of how to pluck, prepare and joint pheasants and pigeons by Mr Pearson, a local butcher. The pheasants and pigeons were portioned and then vacuumed packed which provided game for three practical lessons.

The students made delicious products such as

Pheasant Delight a newly created dish. The students flattened the pheasant’s breasts and added their own choice of stuffing. They stuffed the breasts and then rolled them in either pancetta, streaky bacon or ham. The breasts where then poached for 25 minutes and then sautéed in a frying pan to brown. The rolled pheasant was sliced in half to serve and the dish was presented with game chips, watercress and pomegranates seeds.

Individual game pies – making and moulding their own hot water crust pastry. The class worked as a team, we had a butchery team, a mincing team, a seasoning team and the pastry team. The students minced pheasant, rabbit, duck to create tasty pies. They raised the hot watercrust pasty using jam jars.

Potted pheasant. We added cooked pheasant to a food processor along with butter, walnuts and seasoning. This was whisked and added to ramekin dishes which were brushed with alcohol and flamed with a blow torch to sterilise. Clarified butter added to the top to seal. The students then decorated with holly and berries made from coloured butter to give provide a Christmas product. We served it with toast.

Venison sausages. We minced Venison and pork through the mincers. Sausage skins were provided by the local butcher and using the sausage attachment we made our own venison sausage. The students quickly learnt how to link the sausages. The students worked as a team to make the sausages in our one hour lesson. We had a butchery section, a mincing section, a seasoning section, and a sausage making section. To prove the endless possibilities of flavours some ginger cake was added to one of the batches in the pursuit of making a unique Christmas sausage.

Pan fried pigeon and served it with spiralized potatoes, onion rings and a salad. The students worked as a team to make sure that the dishes were plated within the hour’s lesson. The pigeon tasted like fillet steak and the students were amazed with the flavour.

To finish the game section we were lucky enough to have Canadian goose which the students had the opportunity to dress.

The students learnt lots of new high-level skills and really enjoyed the sessions

Working with the United Nations

Many of you will have heard that Louise Davies, Founder of the Food Teachers Centre has been working with the United Nations across 2017-18 and is part of their expert group.

Here she is pictured at the FAO’s first international expert consultation on school-based food and nutrition education.

In partnership with the United Arab Emirates University, FAO’s Nutrition and Food Systems Division held the first-ever international expert consultation on school-based food and nutrition education. The consultation was a key step in the process of advancing the profile, scope and impact of food and nutrition education in schools worldwide, with a particular focus on low and middle-income countries.

More than 50 experts and practitioners from around the world gathered for the international consultation ‘Stepping-up school-based food and nutrition education (SFNE): Exploring challenges, finding solutions and building partnerships’. Experts considered and further developed a set of SFNE technical guidance documents and tools for program planners and practitioners. The consultation provided a platform to discuss and define priorities, skills, minimum quality and educational innovations, and offered a potential framework of cooperation to strengthen food and nutrition education practices in low and middle-income countries (LMICs).

For the past decades, FAO has been a leader in providing technical assistance and support to member countries to integrate food and nutrition education into their national curricula, implement school gardens as learning platforms for nutrition, and develop learning materials and professional capacities.

Schools represent a key setting for sustainable development in that they have the potential to positively impact education, food security and nutrition simultaneously through different access points and opportunities. When nutrition education is well integrated in holistic school-based food and nutrition programmes and policies, it can foster young people’s capacities to engage in food practices that support human and environmental health.

However, the aims, quality and innovation of much traditional nutrition education need to be improved to allow for real and lasting changes in food practices and behaviours, not only of schoolchildren, but also of their families and the broader school community.

As countries have the best understanding of their own needs and priorities, the best way forward lies in strengthening capacities among national stakeholders, and developing guidance on designing, implementing and evaluating effective, quality SFNE.

In response to countries’ needs, and in the context of Second International Conference on Nutrition (ICN2), the UN Decade of Action on Nutrition and the SDGs, FAO is intensifying its efforts for enhancing the scope, impact and profile of school-based food and nutrition education.

“Improving the educational opportunities in schools to link local diets, garden-based learning, school meals and food environments with children’s healthy eating habits, is key to strengthening food systems and nutrition”

said FAO’s leader of the Nutrition Education and Consumer Awareness Group, Fatima Hachem.

Outcomes of the consultation

The consultation brought together renowned experts in nutrition education and behavioural change from academia, governmental and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). It offered a platform to discuss and define priorities, skills, minimum SFNE quality and educational innovations, and provided a potential framework of cooperation to strengthen food and nutrition education practices in LMICs.

The three-day event consisted of a keynote panel, a series of topical sessions, working group discussions, validation activities of a set of technical guidance documents and tools for program planners, informal and formal networking, and interactive spaces for knowledge exchange and sharing of successful case studies and approaches.

The experts agreed on the fundamental role of SFNE for making changes to improve diets at individual, community and national level, but acknowledged that it is not yet given the priority it deserves. More advocacy, investment and evidence is needed on the cost-effectiveness, pathways, scalability and sustainability of existing nutrition education models in schools, especially in low and middle-income countries.

The group called upon the international community to consolidate their efforts in developing programmes that aim at improving the nutrition, dietary habits, and health behaviours of schoolchildren for better outcomes. Partnerships were highlighted as an effective means of reaching these goals as well as targeting research to identify gaps, needs and innovative approaches for more effective school-based food and nutrition education in LMICs.

Next steps for FAO’s work in this area include the development of advocacy and global guidance materials, capacity development modules and the establishment of a formal framework for cooperation and partnerships with other UN agencies, academia, professional associations and NGOs.

Training courses for our primary teachers

Grow, Cook, Eat with RHS

“Put pupils’ health and wellbeing at the centre of your school with an ethos and culture of great food”

Grow Cook RHS horticulturists have teamed up with the Food Teachers Centre to provide a practical course to enable you to put primary pupils’ health and wellbeing at the centre of your school with an ethos and culture of great food. The Food Teachers Centre is a vibrant online community of food teachers supported by experienced associates. It provides a platform to exchange best practice, give advice and support to less experienced teachers answer practical concerns and keep staff abreast of the latest curriculum changes. Attending this primary course will give you hands-on opportunities to learn some of the key skills needed to grow and cook with your own produce. After the course you will receive ongoing support by email with suggested resources and have access to a social media page to discuss and share your ideas.

What to expect on the day:

Meet the new Ofsted criteria and School Food Plan requirements with effective growing and cooking.

Make growing and cooking food manageable and accessible in your primary school.

Gain the skills and knowledge to grow some easy crops in containers and gardens.

Gain the skills and confidence to cook imaginative and seasonal produce with your class.

Learn successful strategies that support healthier choices and put young people in the driving seat of decisions about the food served in your primary school.

An invaluable tool for continuing professional development, this text will be essential for design and technology teachers (and their teaching assistants) seeking to include and motivate all pupils in their lessons, regardless of their individual needs. This book will also be of interest to secondary SENCOs, senior management teams and ITT providers.

In addition to free online resources, a range of appendices provide design and technology teachers with a variety of pro forma and activity sheets to support effective teaching. This is an essential tool for design and technology teachers and teaching assistants, and will help to deliver successful, inclusive lessons for all pupils

Addressing Special Educational Needs and Disability in the Curriculum: Design and Technology

by Louise T. Davies

Attached to this newsletter is a sample of Starting Points from Chapter 2, to give you an idea of how much useful information is in this book. The free sample you are given talks D&T teachrs through the main characteristics and what you can do to help. This is practical lesson advice – not theory!

And there is a similar guide for each SEND that you will come across in schools

First series of its kind to address the subject-specific teaching of children with SEN

Secondary school teachers are increasingly expected to support complex SEN needs within a mixed ability classroom setting, often with little or no additional support

Good teaching will engage and lead to good progress but increasingly complex SEN needs require subject-specialist knowledge and techniques

Significant changes to both curriculum and SEN legislation make this series a must for all secondary schools

Summary

The SEND Code of Practice (2015) reinforced the requirement that all teachers must meet the needs of all learners. This topical book provides practical, tried-and-tested strategies and resources that will support teachers in making design and technology lessons accessible and interesting for all pupils, including those with special educational needs. The author draws on a wealth of experience to share her understanding of special educational needs and disabilities and show how the design and technology teacher can reduce or remove any barriers to learning.

Offering strategies that are specific to the context of design and technology teaching, this book will enable teachers to:

better identify a student’s particular learning requirements;

set inclusive design and making assignments which allow all students to participate and succeed;

build students’ confidence in using a range of materials and tools;

assist with design tasks where pupils take ownership of their work and learning;

This book has similar content to AQA version, but has EDUQAS style exam papers (two) and the content is divided into sections that reflect the EDUQAS specification. Schools price £3.99

Based on new research that proves repeated practice testing is more effective than repeated study, this revision series is guaranteed to help students achieve the best results.

Clear and accessible explanations

Concise revision notes

Seven practice opportunities for every topic covered in GCSE.

Well Done to Adele James, Whitefield School, who won our first award for the most helpful community contributor for January 2018

Got options/careers evenings coming up?

Get an Ambassador

Food Education is not always well understood by our senior leadership teams, so we need to do all we can to raise the profile of the subject and show its value. One of the best ways that each school can do this, is to make sure that future employers visit your school. There are a great number of Ambassadors willing to do this.

Whilst the Ambassador is at your school, do invite them to talk to your head about the importance of food education, and the range of careers and job prospects possible from studying this area.

As well as inviting them to speak or demonstrate at your options/ careers evenings, and ‘drop-down days’ why don’t you……….

December 2017 News

Best wishes for the holidays

Merry Christmas [NAME]

From everyone at the Food Teachers Centre volunteer team, we wish you happy holidays and a much deserved break. It has been a long term, and challenging as we have conducted the new GCSE assessment and taught new vocational courses in our schools. It has been a sharp learning curve and lots of tips have been learned for next year.

Many of you in the closed group have ‘moved house’ with us on Facebook this month. Thank you for your patience. We realised that the issues with the diminshing functionality in the group were not going to be resolved quickly enough by Facebook itself so we took the decision to move to a new space. You can still access the old group and we do have the files archived in the Resource Bank so do join that.

The house-warming party with 4,000 food teachers was a great one! And glad to see that we have settled in so quickly.

If you are looking for instructions on how to join you can find them on our website here.

Things to look out for if you are a non specialist or less experienced teachers

Support from the Food Teacher Professional Portfolio programme is invaluable – this free programme in now in the third year so sign up if you haven’t done so to acess the free training. www.foodteacher.org.uk

FREE 9th January webinar at 4.30pm – support on Schemes of Work

Roy Ballam will be offering support and advice about Schemes of Work (Learning), lesson planning and progression for teachers at all stages of their careers so why not join him on Tuesday 9 January at 4.30pm?

Following the success of the conference held in London earlier this year, BNF and the Food Teachers Centre will be running the same programme, this time in the north of England at Sheffield Hallam University.

Are you a course leader for PGCE, Schools Direct or SCITT that specialises in Food?

If you lead teacher training in food, we have been contacting you by emai. We are pleased to annouce that we are offering support, guidance and training to those that lead teacher training. So if you have not heard from us with an invitation to take part in our survey and take part in support events, then please do get in touch so that we can add you to our list louise.davies@foodteacherscentre.co.uk

Coming to a local school near you…….

NEA Together meetings will take place in March and will focus on moderating NEA and tried and tested revision techniques and exam strategy

Following the success of our NEA1 Together events in September and NEA2 Together events in November, we will be together again in March (twilight or saturday). We did hold nearly 60 events each time, BUT If you were in a region where there was not an event local to you, please feel free to offer your school as a host venue, especially near transport links.

OTHER TRAINING FOR THIS TERM

Start any time as this is 8 hour ‘home’ study, with experienced mentor support throughout, via phone email and on-line conferencing. Full accreditation. £120

Our course includes award of Level 2 Food Safety and accreditation for the national recognised framework for food teaching standards SECTION 9.1 to 9.6 ‘Implementing good hygiene and safety’ (listed in ‘Food teaching in secondary schools: A framework of knowledge and skills’ 2015 Public Health England, British Nutrition Foundation and Department for Education). Download this framework Here

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for all who teach and support in food activities in school, this includes teachers, technicians, teaching assistants / higher-level teaching assistants, trainee teachers, special needs support staff and cookery club leaders.

Everyone who works with food has a special responsibility for safeguarding the health and well-being of their learners. This course also helps your school meet Ofsted requirements for ‘safeguarding’. This course is designed specifically for those working in schools; as it delivers the Level 2 content with school examples to make it relevant to your everyday work. It also helps you teach elements of food safety confidently at KS3-KS5.

Why do we recommend that you do this course and not just a Level 2?

This training leads Level 2 Food Safety certificate but offers much more for a practising food teacher. The course is delivered by experienced food teachers, so instead of a generic course about ‘Food Safety in Catering’ the content is delivered in the school context. It includes essential planning and teaching information, risk assessment and other documentation relating to safe working practices. It explains food hygiene and safety, personal hygiene and safety related directly to classroom practice.

Spend time with experienced colleagues to:

Share good practice to ensure a high standard of food safety and hygiene in the classroom

Gain confidence to work safely with pupils when delivering food activities

‘Taste of Game’ Game Changer Programme

This programme is ideal for both VCERTS/Level 1 and Level 2 vocational courses as well as GCSE.

We have already trained nearly 70 teachers and given them a whole set of teaching resources to use, the opportunity to have free game delivered to their school, and to have chef delivered masterclasses with key groups. So don’t miss out!

” Great to have some hands on practical experience of game recipes and given resources that are pupil friendly. Thank you so much.”

” Fantastic day all round, learnt so much and very hands on and delivered at just the right pace. Thank you.”

” The Game changer course was great on every level – opportunity to learn new skills, to engage with other teachers, have ideas to take back to school (especially for NEA2), great atmosphere, low cost (especially important in our school. Many thanks “

Mapping the curriculum for the GCSE and vocational courses – why these skills are important to learn and how preparing and cooking game can gain marks in practical exams

How to introduce meat preparation into the classroom, risk assessment and health and safety issues (advice from FSA) and tips for addressing any resistance to using raw meat

Suitable recipes, how to use game for GCSE development work (NEA2) and higher-level skills. British cuisine.

Lesson plans with ready to use activities and templates, including – example practical test questions, nutritional analysis and comparisons, adapting and development recipes for NEA2, managing food choice and sustainability debates and discussions (for example why different animals are eaten in some countries and not others, which animals live wild and which are raised on farms)

Cooking with Game

You will prepare whole pheasant safely, learning the correct skills and techniques to portion into various cuts

Prepare and cook at least two high level skill dishes that your students can replicate within the classroom

Introduction to Culinary Skills Certificate

FREE Level 1 practical course

12-14th February (3 day course)

We are delighted to be working with the prestigious Westminster Kingsway College, London to bring teachers, support staff and technicians who do not have any food qualifications a chance for training and recognition.

This is a FREE three day course ‘Westminster & Pearson Introduction to Culinary Skills’ .

Course Description: The Westminster Introduction to Culinary Skills Certificate is an 18 hour hands-on certificate programme in professional cookery education that offers expert tuition, fit for purpose equipment and facilities, top-quality ingredients and tuition in classic and contemporary European recipes. In eighteen hours total, you will experience a comprehensive foundation in the art of preparation and cookery in modular formats.

1.Basic Food Preparation and Cooking

In this course module, you will learn the fundamentals of the science of preparation and cookery ranging from vegetables, fish, meat, poultry and farinaceous items.Cookery principles are addressed and an explanation of wet and dry methods developed. Extensive use of commodities to create professional dishes within the timeframe.

2.Introduction to Kitchen Equipment and Health and Safety

This module introduces you to the practice of working with professional equipment and the health and safety implications in the workplace. Developing knowledge and understanding of the types of kitchen equipment, utensils and knives appropriate.

3.Food Safety in Catering

This module will introduce you to the knowledge you will need to enable you to take personal responsibility for food safety as well as understand the basic principles of food safety necessary for working in the hospitality and catering industry preparing food. The unit identifies some of the necessary good practice including the legal requirements that must be applied to food, its storage and cooking, as well as the basic principles of good practice needed to keep and maintain food areas/kitchens clean and safe.

Express your interest here, and we will send you further detals of how to apply for this FREE course, as certain criteria have to be met.

– you have to be over 19 years old

– have approval from your employer

– you have to submit an application form before the course

– you have to attend the whole course

This is a LEVEL 1 Course, it is NOT intended for those with food qualifications and skills. It is suited for non specialist teachers and those who have NO FOOD TRAINING.

Coming soon – Food Science Tutorials for teachers

Get ready for the January launch of our brand new ‘Food Science Tutorials’ with Barbara Monks

What are Food Science Tutorials?

Food Science tutorials are recorded presentations by Barbara Monks for food teachers. They teach you the food science of proteins, fats and carbohydrates so that you can confidently answer your pupil’s questions. Three separate presentations cover the chemical and physical aspects of each of the major food groups. You can follow them at your own pace and they take you step by step.

Topics are fully illustrated and cover all the food science requirements of the GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition examination for all examination boards. (AQA, Eduqas and OCR)

The presentations include ideas for ways to teach food science with images and photos to support the teacher and suggestions for delivering food investigations (NEA 1) as required by all the examination boards. Coverage is designed to meet the needs of practical food work whilst also including molecular level science. Key terms from GCSE Food preparation and nutrition specifications are explained and related to practical work.

Who is this for?

The tutorials are designed for teachers who teach and support food activities at Key Stage 3 and 4.They are particularly suitable for those teachers preparing students for GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition. It is appropriate for those who work alongside teachers such as technicians, science teachers and non-specialist teachers.

How to purchase Food Science Tutorials . . . Coming in the new year here

News from our partners!

We have an exciting opportunity to bring the world of farming, food and the environment directly in to your classrooms. Farmers work in the modern, high-tech agricultural industry who are eager to engage with young people.

Ideally, we would like to facilitate either a FaceTime or Skype call between your classrooms and a farmer (either locally or from another part of the UK or a variety).

The idea would be for a designated teacher to email the farmer a week before the call to either:

Give the farmer questions to answer from your students

– Or –

Areas of the National Curriculum / Exam Specifications you are currently covering that might relate to food, farming or the environment.

The farmer will then be able to talk to your class over Skype or FaceTime, from a location on his farm – either in the field, the barn, tractor, harvester etc and talk to your students.

For example, farmers are able to talk about soil, animal welfare, seasons, the farm as a business etc

Ideally this is best suited to a registration/tutor time once per week / two weeks / monthly to last between 10-20minutes. But ultimately the benefit of this is flexibility.

The farmers will all be current working farmers who have a passion for talking about what they do and engaging with young people … perhaps even inspiring a future generation in to the agricultural industry? Many of our farmers will have experience of hosting and running school visits.

Currently we are looking for the names of schools and contact details of those schools who would be interested and have the capability to Skype or FaceTime a farmer.

We would be looking to start this initiative in the Spring Term, once we have the details of the schools who are interested we can then pair up the farmers with the schools to start an engaging conversation between schools and farmers.

Many of you will be familiar with The Royal Marines EAT programme. If you would like to register interest in having a workshop at your school, please register here https://royalmarines-eat.eventbrite.co.uk

This will help Mike plan 2018, make best use of time when visiting an area, and assess the level of requests that are coming in.

RM-EAT – WHAT?

One of the fundamental tenets of the Royal Marine Recruiting strategy is to improve, maintain and develop access into the University/College/School Community thus creating opportunities to impart information about RN/RM careers opportunities to our target audience. Quite clearly, in an ever more challenging recruiting environment, close interaction with students is essential and contributing to the educational programme through the development of “life skills” and career awareness this should develop a more positive and closer relationship between the Royal Navy/Royal Marines, the students and lectures alike.

THE CONCEPT

Royal Marine – EAT is seen as a “First Contact Awareness Team”. The goal of the RM – EAT is to provide an avenue for students to participate in and establish lifetime health and fitness habits and goals. The team has opted for two prong strategy which involves food and nutrition workshops and team building physical education.

The age demographic of the students could be from 15-24 years old.

WHAT NEXT?

All activities are covered by Health and Risk Assessments.

All activities are completely self supported by us the RN/RM.

All activities are completely free.

Schools Partnership programme

University of West London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism (Ealing)

Great news for all food teachers looking for support!

Schools Partnership

University of West London, Ealing Chef Lecturers are available to support careers events and open days. We can also provide cookery workshops/masterclasses, either at your school or in the University for up to 16 pupils at a time, which will include a tour and a two-hour kitchen session.

Post-16 and beyond:

We offer Further Education courses on a full-time basis for 16-19 year olds that cover all aspects of hospitality. We also offer part-time courses in Professional Cookery and Patisserie and Confectionery, Level 2 and 3. Our successful Chef Apprenticeship programme partners with fantastic establishments all across London, including The Ritz, Gordon Ramsay Group and the Savoy hotel.

Open Days:

We would also like to extend an invite to any who wish to attend one of our Open Days, which take place on the following dates:

Saturday 21 April 2018, 10am-3pm

Wednesday 20 June 2018, 10am-3pm

Saturday 7 July 2018, 10am-3pm

Junior Chefs’ Academy:

Enrolment for the next course will take place on Saturday 13th January at 9:30am at St. Mary’s Road campus.

The course is aimed at Year 9, 10 and 11 students, and provides a great start for those interested in a career in food and culinary arts. There are two courses to choose from: Junior Chefs Academy or the Junior Cake and Bake Academy.

Courses last 8 weeks and are delivered on Saturday mornings from 9.30am to 12.30pm. Cake and Bake classes are on Tuesday evenings from 17:30-20:30. Each session costs £10. Our courses cover:

Basic culinary techniques and presentation of food

Specialist dishes on the Asian course

Cake making and bakery skills on the Cake and Bake course

Hygiene

Basic nutrition

Teamwork and organisation

Contact details:

Ashley Marsh

Chef Lecturer, University of West London. Adopt-a-School Lecturer, Royal Academy of Culinary Arts

Don’t miss bringing or sending your students on the next open day, or call to arrange a visit with your senior students. If teachers wanted to register an interest to come they can let Sally Anne Watts (Marketing team) know SallyAnn.Watts@capitalccg.ac.uk or come along on the day.

Teachers often ask us about where to go in London for a student visit – this would be top of our list! Arrange a tour, have lunch in the restaurant (cooked and served by students) – all in the heart of London, a few minutes walk from Victoria , St James’, Pimlico and Vauxhall stations. Ideal for a visit to be followed by foodie sightseeing.

OPEN DAYS! PUT THESE DATES IN YOUR DIARY

Monday 5th February

4pm – 7pm

Monday 26th March

4pm – 7pm

Open Days are a great way to get a feel for the college, they include welcome desks to ask about the courses you are interested in, behind the scenes tours with refreshment breaks and plenty of opportunity to ask current students about the courses and a short presentation about the college.

Teachers will always find a warm welcome at Westminster Kingsway. The college is full of your ex-pupils and many food teachers are ex-students. We have worked together for years ensuring that the most promising of our pupils find a course that will bring out the best in them here.

It has an amazing history having been set up in 1893 as the first professional culinary school by Angela Burdett-Coutts. Right through to acknowledgements from modern greats!

Jamie Oliver; “Its is fantastic, it made me grow up fast. Westminster Kingsway College is a big old grand college that has the respect of the industry. It has a great reputation in one of the best food cities in the world…. The best catering college in the country!”

The Food Teachers Centre supports their ethos – shining brightly

•Only highly qualified and specialised teachers direct from the industry are employed
•

Training courses for our primary teachers

Grow, Cook, Eat with RHS

“Put pupils’ health and wellbeing at the centre of your school with an ethos and culture of great food”

Grow Cook RHS horticulturists have teamed up with the Food Teachers Centre to provide a practical course to enable you to put pupils’ health and wellbeing at the centre of your school with an ethos and culture of great food. The Food Teachers Centre is a vibrant online community of food teachers supported by experienced associates. It provides a platform to exchange best practice, give advice and support to less experienced teachers, answer practical concerns and keep teachers abreast of the latest curriculum changes. Attending this course will give you hands-on opportunities to learn some of the key skills needed to grow and cook with your own produce. After the course you will receive ongoing support by email with suggested resources and have access to a social media page to discuss and share your ideas.

What to expect on the day:

Meet the new Ofsted criteria and School Food Plan requirements with effective growing and cooking.

Make growing and cooking food manageable and accessible in your school.

Gain the skills and knowledge to grow some easy crops in containers and gardens.

Gain the skills and confidence to cook imaginative and seasonal produce with your class.

Learn successful strategies that support healthier choices and put young people in the driving seat of decisions about the food served in your school.

October 2017 News

Get ready for NEA 2

We hope that you have all been able to enjoy a break over half term. Many of you have almost completed NEA 1 for the first time, and are getting ready for the release of the NEA 2 tasks.

1. Reflect on the NEA 1 experience

We will be helping you again with teacher meetings, so please come along, but we do suggest that you:

reflect on how your students coped with NEA 1 this time and, whilst it is still fresh in your mind, make notes of anything that you would change next year.

Some teachers have already said that they would follow our advice and spend more time at the start of the term practising other science investigations and doing a ‘walk through’ before they set the live task.

Others have begun to adjust their scheme of work for Y10 to prepare more efficiently.

Others have enrolled for on-line food science courses to bring their own subject knowledge up to date to give them confidence.

Any new assessment takes time to embed, there are bound to be things that are unclear at the start, but this will get better as we progress.

2. Get set for NEA 2

With NEA 2, we do suggest that you give your students time to practice higher level skills, time planning and other exam requirements (where applicable) such as nutritional analysis and costing – before you begin their actual exam task. Most teachers are plannng to complete this around February-April, to give them time to mark before May.

Be sure to download and follow all the exam board guidance and examples, checking how the marks are allocated for your board.

For NEA 2 there are distinct differences between the boards in their requirements. This relfects in the number of hours for the assessment (AQA/OCR are 20 hours and EDUQAS is 12 hours). Be sure that any checklists and marking criteria you use are for YOUR BOARD!

3. Accessing FREE support for non specialist or less experienced teachers

Your will also find that the support from the Food Teacher Professional Portfolio invaluable – this free programme in now in the third year so sign up if you haven’t done so to acess the free training. www.foodteacher.org.uk

FREE November webinar – support for NEA 2

If you would like support, advice and guidance about preparing for and running the NEA 2 in your school, join Louise Davies on Tuesday 7 November at 4.30pm.

The webinar link is emailed to all those enrolled on the programme.

Saturday 12 May 2018

Food teaching for the less experienced

09.00-1.00pm Sheffield Hallam University

Following the success of the conference held earlier this year, BNF and the Food Teachers Centre will be running another FREE half day conference for new, non-specialist or less experienced food teachers, this time in the north of England at Sheffield Hallam University.

Thank you for your support in the research project ‘FELL’ Food Education Learning Landscape

The
Jamie Oliver Food Foundation, with the British Nutrition Foundation, the Food
Teachers Centre and the University of Sheffield, undertook a comprehensive
review of the state of food education and food culture in primary and
secondary schools in England.

In summary, the
findings showed:

A stark difference between schools doing
a great job at delivering strong food education and others struggling
with a lack of time, resource and support

Concerns about the food environment at
secondary schools, compromising pupils’ ability to make good food
choices

A strong and clear teacher, pupil and parent
voice asking for a healthier school environment.

For more information
on the findings and the key recommendations, click here.

We will be using this evidence based research to present what is needed to improve food education in schools. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP

Don’t miss our NEA 2 Together meetings only £15 donation

NEA 2-Together Programme

Food Teachers Centre Community is running simultaneous meetings around the country to support the release of GCSE NEA 2 on 1st November. We want to bring teachers together locally to support their planning and understanding of Non Examination Assessment (NEA) to help clarify any issues and share good resources to use.

The draft programme will include:

Welcome and light
refreshments

A recorded or live
presentation from Louise Davies and Food Teachers Centre Associates and experienced examiners Simon Gray and Jacqui Keepin, with
essential tips on NEA 2

Questions and Answers

Marking and Moderating NEA 1
– Working in groups for each board

Understanding and preparing
for NEA 2 – Working in groups for each board

PLEASE BRING a copy of the exam board set tasks, an example for moderation (to be kept confidential at all times), and any exam board guidance that you have

This programme is ideal for both VCERTS/Level 1 and Level 2 vocational courses as well as GCSE.

We have already trained nearly 70 teachers and given them a whole set of teaching resources to use, the opportunity to have free game delivered to their school, and to have chef delivered masterclasses with key groups. So don’t miss out!

” Great to have some hands on practical experience of game recipes and given resources that are pupil friendly. Thank you so much.”

” Fantastic day all round, learnt so much and very hands on and delivered at just the right pace. Thank you.”

” The Game changer course was great on every level – opportunity to learn new skills, to engage with other teachers, have ideas to take back to school (especially for NEA2), great atmosphere, low cost (especially important in our school. Many thanks “

Our partners who help make learning real!

CSgt Mike Beaton: Royal Marines

Many of you will be familiar with The Royal Marines EAT programme. If you would like to register interest in having a workshop at your school, please register here https://royalmarines-eat.eventbrite.co.uk

This will help Mike plan 2018, make best use of time when visiting an area, and assess the level of requests that are coming in.

RM-EAT – WHAT?

One of the fundamental tenets of the Royal Marine Recruiting strategy is to improve, maintain and develop access into the University/College/School Community thus creating opportunities to impart information about RN/RM careers opportunities to our target audience. Quite clearly, in an ever more challenging recruiting environment, close interaction with students is essential and contributing to the educational programme through the development of “life skills” and career awareness this should develop a more positive and closer relationship between the Royal Navy/Royal Marines, the students and lectures alike.

THE CONCEPT

Royal Marine – EAT is seen as a “First Contact Awareness Team”. The goal of the RM – EAT is to provide an avenue for students to participate in and establish lifetime health and fitness habits and goals. The team has opted for two prong strategy which involves food and nutrition workshops and team building physical education.

The age demographic of the students could be from 15-24 years old.

WHAT NEXT?

All activities are covered by Health and Risk Assessments.

All activities are completely self supported by us the RN/RM.

All activities are completely free.

Schools Partnership programme

University of West London Geller College of Hospitality and Tourism (Ealing)

Great news for all food teachers looking for support!

Schools Partnership

University of West London, Ealing Chef Lecturers are available to support careers events and open days. We can also provide cookery workshops/masterclasses, either at your school or in the University for up to 16 pupils at a time, which will include a tour and a two-hour kitchen session.

Post-16 and beyond:

We offer Further Education courses on a full-time basis for 16-19 year olds that cover all aspects of hospitality. We also offer part-time courses in Professional Cookery and Patisserie and Confectionery, Level 2 and 3. Our successful Chef Apprenticeship programme partners with fantastic establishments all across London, including The Ritz, Gordon Ramsay Group and the Savoy hotel.

Open Days:

We would also like to extend an invite to any who wish to attend one of our Open Days, which take place on the following dates:

Saturday 11 November 2017, 10am-3pm

Saturday 21 April 2018, 10am-3pm

Wednesday 20 June 2018, 10am-3pm

Saturday 7 July 2018, 10am-3pm

Junior Chefs’ Academy:

The course is aimed at Year 9, 10 and 11 students, and provides a great start for those interested in a career in food and culinary arts. There are two courses to choose from: Junior Chefs Academy or the Junior Cake and Bake Academy.

Courses last 8 weeks and are delivered on Saturday mornings from 9.30am to 12.30pm. Cake and Bake classes are on Tuesday evenings from 17:30-20:30. Enrolment for the next course will take place on Saturday 13th January at 9:30am at our St. Mary’s Road campus. Each session costs £10. Our courses cover:

Basic culinary techniques and presentation of food

Specialist dishes on the Asian course

Cake making and bakery skills on the Cake and Bake course

Hygiene

Basic nutrition

Teamwork and organisation

Contact details:

Ashley Marsh

Chef Lecturer, University of West London. Adopt-a-School Lecturer, Royal Academy of Culinary Arts

We are delighted to be working with the prestigious Westminster Kingsway College, London to bring teachers, support staff and technicians who do not have any food qualifications a chance for training and recognition.

This is a FREE three day course ‘Westminster & Pearson Introduction to Culinary Skills’ . Provisional dates are 12th,13th and 14th February and we are also planning a June/July date if this is popular.

Course Description: The Westminster Introduction to Culinary Skills Certificate is an 18 hour hands-on certificate programme in professional cookery education that offers expert tuition, fit for purpose equipment and facilities, top-quality ingredients and tuition in classic and contemporary European recipes. In eighteen hours total, you will experience a comprehensive foundation in the art of preparation and cookery in modular formats.

1.Basic Food Preparation and Cooking

In this course module, you will learn the fundamentals of the science of preparation and cookery ranging from vegetables, fish, meat, poultry and farinaceous items.Cookery principles are addressed and an explanation of wet and dry methods developed. Extensive use of commodities to create professional dishes within the timeframe.

2.Introduction to Kitchen Equipment and Health and Safety

This module introduces you to the practice of working with professional equipment and the health and safety implications in the workplace. Developing knowledge and understanding of the types of kitchen equipment, utensils and knives appropriate.

3.Food Safety in Catering

This module will introduce you to the knowledge you will need to enable you to take personal responsibility for food safety as well as understand the basic principles of food safety necessary for working in the hospitality and catering industry preparing food. The unit identifies some of the necessary good practice including the legal requirements that must be applied to food, its storage and cooking, as well as the basic principles of good practice needed to keep and maintain food areas/kitchens clean and safe.

Express your interest here, and we will send you further detals of how to apply for this FREE course, as certain criteria have to be met.

– you have to be over 19 years old

– have approval from your employer

– you have to submit an application form before the course

– you have to attend the whole course

This is a LEVEL 1 Course, it is NOT intended for those with food qualifications and skills. It is suited for non specialist teachers and those who have NO FOOD TRAINING.

Don’t miss bringing or sending your students on the next open day, or call to arrange a visit with your senior students. If teachers wanted to register an interest to come they can let Sally Anne Watts (Marketing team) know SallyAnn.Watts@capitalccg.ac.uk or come along on the day.

Teachers often ask us about where to go in London for a student visit – this would be top of our list! Arrange a tour, have lunch in the restaurant (cooked and served by students) – all in the heart of London, a few minutes walk from Victoria , St James’, Pimlico and Vauxhall stations. Ideal for a visit to be followed by foodie sightseeing.

OPEN DAYS! PUT THESE DATES IN YOUR DIARY

Saturday 2nd December

10am – 2pm

Monday 5th February

4pm – 7pm

Monday 26th March

4pm – 7pm

Open Days are a great way to get a feel for the college, they include welcome desks to ask about the courses you are interested in, behind the scenes tours with refreshment breaks and plenty of opportunity to ask current students about the courses and a short presentation about the college.

Teachers will always find a warm welcome at Westminster Kingsway. The college is full of your ex-pupils and many food teachers are ex-students. We have worked together for years ensuring that the most promising of our pupils find a course that will bring out the best in them here.

It has an amazing history having been set up in 1893 as the first professional culinary school by Angela Burdett-Coutts. Right through to acknowledgements from modern greats!

Jamie Oliver; “Its is fantastic, it made me grow up fast. Westminster Kingsway College is a big old grand college that has the respect of the industry. It has a great reputation in one of the best food cities in the world…. The best catering college in the country!”

The Food Teachers Centre supports their ethos – shining brightly

•Only highly qualified and specialised teachers direct from the industry are employed
•

September 2017 News

New term, new assessment!

Let us help you this term

It has been the start of a busy term, with teachers preparing their students for the first of three new examinations for GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition. Non-Examination Assessment 1 is a food science investigation and has to be completed between September 2017 and May 2018. This new style of assessment has new regulations from JCQ and it is NOT like the legacy ‘controlled assessment’ or ‘coursework’, so we recommend that teachers spend some time making sure they have read the guidance from their respective exam board (AQA, OCR, EDUCAS), and the new regulations for the conduct of the NEA. We encourage teachers to be clear about the difference in their role between the phases of assessment as directed by JCQ:

The teacher preparing the class for assessment ahead of the task being given to students

The teacher providing general advice and feedback during the task setting phase of the NEA

The teacher as an examiner during the task taking phase, when candidates work independently of you.

Make sure your students are also aware of the code of conduct around the use of social media during the NEA and the sharing of past students work going forward.

To support teachers we have been doing a number of things:

1. NEA Together

We have run 50 NEA Together meetings around the country with nearly 900 teachers attending in the first two weeks of term. If you missed them you can catch up with the video that we used here. And you can find the handout here. But to be honest nothing beats being with other teachers doing the same NEA as you, to share experiences and discuss how the prepare your students. So, if you missed your local meeting make sure you book on early for the next meetings in November. Make sure you check the website regularly. If you don’t see a location near you, feel free to offer to host a meeting at your school – info@foodteacherscentre.co.uk

2. Helping with teaching resources

We have created a NEA folder in theResource Bank. The Resource Bank has been going for a year now, and we have curated all the essential files from the Facebook group and placed them in searchable folders to make it easier to locate things. Thank you to Fiona Balding and Suzanne Gray who manage the checking, uploading and filing as volunteers each week. If you have trouble accessing this folder we do have some advice on the registration page that can assist you.

3. Q&A in the On-line community

We have invited the three exam boards to come into the On-Line Community and answer the questions that have been raised. AQA have done this recently – you can find the discussion here. EDUCAS had to delay due to family illness, but provided the answers to your FAQs in writing, and we hope to confirm OCR shortly. So, look out for those sessions in the On-Line group.

We have worked with the Institute of Food Science and Technology, and in partnership produced some exciting GCSE videos to support your students doing NEA 1. As they are generic topics, such as writing a hypothesis, what is meant by control and variables, what is meant by data collection – this means you can use them to support candidates with general advice during NEA1. Find them on the Love Food Love Science Website.

Don’t miss our NEA 2 Together meetings only £15 donation

NEA 2-Together Programme

Food Teachers Centre Community is running simultaneous meetings around the country to support the release of GCSE NEA 2 on 1st November. We want to bring teachers together locally to support their planning and understanding of Non Examination Assessment (NEA) to help clarify any issues and share good resources to use.

Code of Conduct and
regulations – what is permissible during task preparation, task setting
and task taking phases.

This is a new community style meeting, which is less formal and more self-help than our training days or face to face events. But there is something very exciting about the whole country of food teachers getting together during this time to help each other, so we hope that you can join us. We know that this is will great for your school results, your own CPD and networking.

The draft programme will include:

Welcome and light
refreshments

A recorded or live
presentation from Louise Davies and Food Teachers Centre Associates and experienced examiners Simon Gray and Jacqui Keepin, with
essential tips on NEA 2

Questions and Answers

Marking and Moderating NEA 1
– Working in groups for each board

Understanding and preparing
for NEA 2 – Working in groups for each board

PLEASE BRING a copy of the exam board set tasks, an example for moderation (to be kept confidential at all times), and any exam board guidance that you have

Need GCSE training and cannot get out of school?

If you missed our summer term GCSE events – don’t panic we recorded them for you! Get Set for GCSE! Videos, handouts and presentations from the exam boards (and much more) brings the 24th June event to your desk or sofa.

This features workshop presentations on planning and managing NEA from AQA, OCR and EDUQAS.

Are you looking for advice on Technical Awards – and the 5 choices of courses that are approved and that you can teach for examination?

If you missed our summer term vocational course events – don’t panic we recorded them for you!

If you are planning on teaching Teaching VCERTs and Technical Awards this digital ticket contain Videos, handouts and presentations with all the exam boards (from our vocational course day 7th July) brings this valuable course to your desk or sofa. It features EDUQAS/WJEC, City and Guilds, BTEC, NCFE and AQA.

5 courses of the courses presented are approved and count for progress 8. Please note that AQA Technical Award has not been approved for 2019.

These presentations are invaluable if you are looking for alternatives to GCSE.

Need some help with practical skills teaching for vocational courses and GCSE

Not everyone is confident with teaching higher level knife skills, meat preparation and presenting a great plate to photograph. So come along to our VERY LOW cost training, with after event support.

Our partnership with ‘Taste of Game’, means we can provide training and free game ingredients for our schools.

These 2017-18 days will focus on extending students repertoire of knife skills, food preparation and presentation skills. But we will also be helping you with the rest of the specification- improving understanding of local, seasonal and sustainable produce, traditional british cuisine and preparing quick nutritious dishes that meet current dietary guidelines.

We offer:

– VERY low cost £25 teacher CPD training days to teach you new skills and recipes, that will focus on higher level skills that can be completed in less than 60 minutes

– a follow up delivery of FREE fresh game for the recipes provided so that you can deliver the same quality of experience to your students as you got on the training day. You can stop worrying about how you will afford to get students to try new things.

– the opportunity to sign up for very low cost student MASTERCLASSES practical demonstrations and workshops at your school. We know that not every teacher is confident to deliver new skills and this provides an experienced DBS checked teacher to take the lesson with them.

Sign Up is FREE and means you will hear about training first. Check it out

This practical training day matches the GCSE and vocational course requirements closely, so that you can develop your student’s knowledge and skills in how to buy, prepare, cook, present and taste game to a high level.

By attending the day, you will ensure your students:

Understand ‘provenance’ and how game is reared, prepared and cooked

Taste game, develop some recipes and are familiar its value and uses

Explore its nutritional benefits and uses in a modern balanced diet.

Improve higher level practical skills, styling and presentation so that they get higher marks in GCSE NEA 2 and vocational practical tests

For full details of the programme, check the attached event brochure.

This course is suitable for all secondary food teachers, who are teaching GCSE and any vocational KS4 course (Technical Awards/VCert)

News from our partners

Free Resources for GCSE Food Choice, Provenance and Sustainability

When the specifications for the new GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition courses were released last year, Practical Action were delighted by the inclusion of opportunities for students to learn about issues that very much reflect the broader debates around food in the world today. They include issues around sustainability, the environment and the pros and cons of different food production systems.

Although the different examination boards have approached the subject knowledge and understanding of these topics in slightly different ways, at the core of all of the specifications are requirements for students to demonstrate their understanding of:

Food Choice – including factors that influence why people eat the food they do, including economic, social, moral and cultural factors

Food Provenance – including where food originates from and the impact of its journey throughout its whole lifecycle on local and global communities

Sustainability of Food – including the challenges of how best we achieve food security (access to adequate nutritious and affordable food) in a way that is sustainable now and for future generations.

Practical Action have drawn on their experience of working to improve people’s access to food security globally to develop a set of three FREE resourcesto support teachers and students with these topics.

Each set of materials contains a Power Point presentation, student worksheets and links to video clips and other resources to support these units.

Utensa – Bakeware

Many of you were lucky enough to come to our Birmingham event and meet Jerry Griffiths from Utensa. They used their time well at the exhibition and asked you what you used and how much you could spend, so they have developed a Schools Price list (which is an amazing Trade less 10%!), especially for the Food Teachers Centre. Thank You Jerry!

Why do we like them? Not only do they offer you great prices but it’s made for heavy ‘school’ use. Their non-stick bakeware offers Industry leading technology with Teflon™ branded coatings that are second to none and outperform typical Far East product by up to 6 times! (Roasting function). This means that schools can not only buy at excellent prices but they will invest in product that will perform better and last longer than virtually all the competition. If you have any queries – feel free to get in touch with them. http://www.utensa.co.uk/

Closing date 1st November 2018 Diamond Standard Awards

Don’t miss entering your students

Keen Young Cooks 12-16 years – to
bake a favourite dish

Aspiring Student Chefs 16-19 years
– to cook a game inspired signature

Keen Home Cooks 17 years and over –
to cook their signature classic

Winners receive a prestigious three-year Specialised Chefs Scholarship and for the home cook a bespoke cookery weekend. In addition to these prizes, bundles of Teflon™ non-stick coated cookware from the sponsors are awarded as well as cash prizes of up to £500.

Entries close on 1 November 2017 and can be submitted individually or via schools and colleges with the national final scheduled for late January 2018 at the Waitrose Cookery School, London. More information

4. If you missed any of our events, buy yourself a digital ticket for GCSE Get Set, or Vocational KS4 (VCerts and Technical Awards) and watch the presentations and review the resources from the comfort of your own sofa.

5. Spend a morning reflecting back on Y10 and refining it for your incoming new cohort, and check the Resource Bank to save yourself time developing new teaching resources

7. Please take part in the Food Education Learning Landscape Research before 22nd July, as this will provide valuable information on how food education needs to be supported in the future. Go to survey

8. Sign up for the 3rd year of free CPD if you haven’t registered do so here

NEA-Together

Food Teachers Centre Community is running simultaneous meetings around the country to support the release of GCSE NEA1 on 1st September. We want to bring teachers together locally to support their planning and understanding of NEA 1, to help clarify any issues and share good resources to use.

These NEA-Together events will take place in first two weeks of September, particularly on Saturday mornings 2nd and 9th September or Twilights on any evening. This is a new community style meeting, which is less formal than our training days or face to face events, but similar to the free twilights we were able to offer in 2016 to launch GCSE planning.

But there is something very exciting about the whole country of food teachers getting together during this time to help each other, so we hope that you can join us. We know that this is will great for your school results, your own CPD and networking.

The programme will include:

Welcome and light refreshments (provided by the host)

A recorded or live presentation from Louise Davies, with essential tips on approaching NEA 1

Questions and Answers

Planning NEA 1 – Working in groups for each board

COST to teachers: A donation of £15 will be requested to cover any costs, such as room hire, refreshments and managing the booking system. Donations from student teachers can be more flexible.

Get preparation and presentation skills ready for GCSE or vocational practical exams.

Not everyone is confident with teaching higher level knife skills, meat preparation and presenting a great plate to photograph. So come along to our VERY LOW cost training, with after event support.

Our partnership with ‘Taste of Game’, means we can provide training and free ingredients for our schools.

These 2017-18 days will focus on extending students repertoire of knife skills, food preparation and presentation skills. But we will also be helping you with the rest of the specification- improving understanding of local, seasonal and sustainable produce, traditional british cuisine and preparing quick nutritious dishes that meet current dietary guidelines.

We will be offering:

– VERY low cost teacher CPD training days to teach you new skills and recipes, that will focus on higher level skills that can be completed in less than 60 minutes

– a follow up single delivery of FREE fresh ingredients for the recipes provided so that you can deliver the same quality of experience to your students as you got on the training day. You can stop worrying about how you will afford to get students to try new things.

– the opportunity to sign up for very low cost student MASTERCLASSES practical demonstrations and workshops at your school. We know that not every teacher is confident to deliver new skills and this provides an experienced DBS checked teacher to take the lesson with them.

Sign Up is FREE and means you will hear about training first. Check it out

Special Offers to all Food Teachers Centre from Billingsgate Seafood School

Need more confident fish fileting skills? Reduced price training courses for teachers and student masterclasses if you would like to bring a group to Billingsgate.

Huge thanks to Tracey Goodyere at Birmimgham City University, our wonderful presenters and our amazing exhibitors supporting our 24th June Get Set for GCSE event. It was a brilliant day with over 200 people coming to join us!

Congratulations to the prize winners!

Louise James

Utensa

Wonderful set of Bakeware

Maria Kakengi

Taste of Game

CookBook

Angela Cadwaller

Taste of Game

CookBook

Sharon Folkes

BNF

Online Nutrition Training

Gill Spittle

BNF

Online Nutrition Training

Clare Syer

TechSoft

£300 Software

Wendy Tims

Illuminate

Food & Nutrition Preparation Text Books and Revision Guides

Ruth Heatley

Cruncy Critters

Sample products

Get Set for GCSE! If you missed the event the digital ticket, with videos, handouts and presentations is still available £20 +VAT Here

Teaching VCERTs and Technical Awards? We also have a digital ticket, with videos, handouts and presentations for our vocational course day £20 +VAT Here

Crunchy Critters

A valuable and memorable learning experience – Add the wow factor to your teaching about protein and sustainability. NIck very kindly gives discounts to teachers and advice on which ‘critters’ to order, so do get in touch with him.

Teflon™ non-stick coatings is delighted to announce the launch of its 2018 Diamond Standard Awards for amateur chefs of all ages.

Keen Young Cooks 12-16 years
– to bake a favourite dish

Aspiring Student Chefs 16-19
years – to cook a game inspired signature

Keen Home Cooks 17 years and
over – to cook their signature classic

The winning student and young cook will receive a prestigious three-year Specialised Chefs Scholarship and for the home cook a bespoke cookery weekend. In addition to these prizes, bundles of Teflon™ non-stick coated cookware from the sponsors are awarded as well as cash prizes of up to £500. Joining Anolon (cookware sponsor) as category sponsors is new sponsor BergHOFF (knives sponsor) and the continued generous support of Utensa Wonderbake (bakeware sponsor) and NoStik (baking liner sponsor).

Entries are open from 6th March and can be submitted individually or via schools and colleges. Entries close on 1 November 2017 with the national final scheduled for late January 2018 at the Waitrose Cookery School, London. More information

Illuminate Publishing Ltd

This award-winning independent publisher of high-quality and inspirational educational resources, provides an exciting range of schemes for the new GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition specifications.

AQA GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition

WJEC GCSE Food and Nutrition

Eduqas GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition

They provide a range of colourful and engaging Student Books and Revision Guides accompanied by fantastic custom-made Digital Resources.

Student Books are awarding-body endorsed offering high quality support you can trust, and are presented in an appealing style to engage students with the content.

Revision Guides are packed with photos and diagrams to explain key concepts and are ideal for helping students consolidate knowledge and prepare for their exam.

Digital Book Bundles have been designed to really enhance learning and support teaching and are available without subscription. They are very simple to use and include a range of custom-made films and animations to demonstrate key cooking skills and explain difficult scientific concepts. They also provide a wide range of teacher resources all designed to help the delivery of the new specifications.

New Revision Guide from Collins – Sold out, but more stock is coming soon

Collins have an amazing track record and reputation as a publisher based on sound research in effective revision and study for exams.

The revision guide structure is based on the research that shows that repeated practice is more important than repeated study. It contains key facts for revision, quick quizes, mixed style exam questions, a student workbook or photocopiable section, practice questions and two full practice papers -Ideal for your mocks.

The education price for schools is ONLY £3.99, so don’t buy it from Amazon as the public price is £10.99. And as it is over 200 pages that’s great value.

Have your say about Food Education and help guide the future provision!

The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation, in partnership with the British Nutrition Foundation and Food Teacher’s Centre, are carrying out a comprehensive review of the current delivery of food education in schools in England.

We are inviting stakeholders from academia, the school education system, non-governmental organizations, industry experts, and health and nutrition specialists to contribute their expertise and wide-ranging knowledge to this exciting project.

We would like to invite you to take part in the survey that is part of the overall research, this survey will take you about 10-15 minutes and should be completed by 22nd July 2017.

If you are a primary teacher please take 10 minutes to complete the survey here

If you are a secondary teacher, please take 10 minutes to complete the survey here

News from the team…

We would like to thank Kath Callaghan, Food Teachers Centre Associate, who has done amazing work for the last few years. Many of you will be familiar with Kath, as she has contributed to the on-line Q&A sessions, supported teachers in the closed group, trained technicians around the country and helped to manage the Resource Bank. She has decided that allotment and family activities are calling her in her retirement and will be stepping down from her current volunteering with us. We will miss you!

We wish Joe Mann, Food Teachers Centre Associate, great success in his new teaching job in Exeter, he will still be supporting the group and running training days, so look out for even more help for NEA 1 as he shares his inspiring food science teaching activities with us all.

We would like to congratulate Louise Davies on her new project this year, working as an ‘expert consultant’ to the Food and Agriculture of the United Nations. She joins a global team, drawn from organisations and universities around the world to develop a practical white paper on how to improve School Food and Nutrition Education (Healthy Diets, Sustainable Food Systems and Behaviour Change) in low and middle income countries. She’s leading on the theme of professional development, with capacity building and training strategies – and will draw upon the experience of setting up and leading the Food Teachers Centre.

Best wishes from the Food Teachers Centre team

Do you know another food teacher?

Please also pass this newsletter on and encourage your colleagues to sign up for their own copy each month. Sign up only takes a few seconds here

Food Teachers Centre News

June 2017

Getting Set for the new GCSE and Vocational Assessment

As this year is racing past, as we have journeyed around the country to see many of you, and chatted to you all on-line in the community group, the theme has become preparing for the new exams and addressing the changes that we face. The team tries to do all that it can to support you, and best of all is how the teaching group helps each other every day.

This newsletter brings you

– Some ideas to help you with the science aspects of the new GCSE

– Event news, including our digital tickets for those that cannot make it in person on the day of an event

– Q&A dates on facebook

– New Resources from Love Food Love Science

– New Resources from Aldi’s Get Set to Eat Fresh

– New Resources for teaching Food provenance

Getting help with Food Science

We know that some teachers are finding the teaching of the food science challenging in the new GCSE. But help is at hand!

Getting up to date

1. Here are some on-line courses to bring your own knowledge up to date

2. Enrol in the Food Teacher Professional Portfolio programme, there are some free webinars to guide you through food science. These are all recorded, so the library of webinar CPD can be accessed at any time. http://www.foodteacher.org.uk/

3. Join one of our training days to experience teaching ideas and NEA tips first hand, we have been all over the country during the year, but if you are quick there are still a few places on including Thursday 8th June (Northampton), Friday 9th June (King’s Lynn), Thursday 15th June (London), Sorry Leeds is full, Tuesday 20thJune (Didcot), Sat June 24th (Birmingham), and Monday 10th July (London).

4. Ask a Food Science Mentor to support you and your classes, The Institute of Food Science and Technology have NOW launched the mentoring scheme that Food Teachers Centre piloted and set up with their help.

2. Make sure you have joined the Resource Bank where teachers have been sharing their newly created teaching resources

3. Have a chat with your science department about how they approach the science enquiry. When the new GCSE was developed it was carefully aligned to use the same language and assessment as GCSE Science, so perhaps you can support each other, and make sure that students know that what they have learned in another part of the school will gain them marks in the food NEA.

Case Study – Kathy Brooks worked with the chemistry teacher, Jonathan Casalis de Pury, at her school (British School in the Netherlands) on the new GCSE

“The chemistry teacher was talking to me about his love for food. We were planning sessions for the baking club. This school based conference session gave us the motivation to put our words into action. We wanted to try new ideas and flavours. It was great for me as he knew the resources for molecular recipes. We plan to do a new session for next year.

The work on spherification was good. To show the video clip of how this technology maybe used to replace plastic water bottles. The session went well with the parsnip and banana recipe at the end as it was creative. I demonstrated a simple ice cream while we talked about the cryogenic freezing. The green eggs also provided a wow factor!”

The first NEA will be released on the 1st September 2017 but you have until early May 2018 to complete this with your class and send in the marks. Ideally, your students should have had the 120 hours guided learning before they embark upon the assessment. This assessment is about 8 hours, so ensure that your exams officer timetables this. You may want to schedule some double lessons to enable them to do longer experiments.

1. Check the guidance on your exam board website. There are some great resources on the exam boards to help you with your teaching don’t miss them. OCR, AQA, EDUQAS

2. Plan for a mock and get the students using the structure. Top tips that we give at our training days are:

a. Avoid google search – same time out of the valuable 8 hours by having example tests accessible to remind the students what they did in past lessons and best practice

b. Have example good investigations ready in their folders to refer to, such as those on the exam board websites and key textbooks

c. Use a checklist (such as the one attached to this newsletter) that has example of relevant tests that they could do for specific investigations, for example hyperlinked to relevant tests if asked a question on thickening, or bread/flour is on the paper.

3. To get the top marks students need:

d. Research that is relevant and informs the investigation

e. Plan the investigation

f. A clear hypothesis

g. To show an understanding of how the ingredients work – analysis, interpret findings from tests, say how the science is applied when cooking

h. A range of tests

i. Record – written and visually and use technical language

Food Provenance – Is 5 a day Killing the planet?

You know the Eat Well Guide but how about the Eat Well Harvest?

The GCSE Food Preparation and Nutrition with its section on food provenance now covers how these food groups are grown, reared and processed – the Eat Well Harvest as it where!

The Discovering Our Countryside teaching theme “Is 5 A Day killing the planet?” starts with a thought provoking entry point video before covering the “Eat Well Harvest” for the food groups of the “Eat Well Guide” with it’s food stories videos on

Each of these food stories has a pupil workbook – (can be self-marking!) which they complete in conjunction with each of the food story videos.

It then considers how….

“Man, with food has many problems man without food has only ONE!”

In 2 further videos which cover some of the food problems. Ideal for setting up class debates which allow you to discuss food security and sustainability with a class of pupils better informed about modern food production.

The best bit – it’s all free log in here as quest to access this FREE Moodle Course http://bit.ly/GCSEFood (this link should take you straight to course if not log in as a quest no password needed)

Great new Resources for Get Set to Eat Fresh

Films, presentations, teacher’s notes and student worksheets – all ready for you to use. Download them here. All developed in conjunction with Aldi by Louise Davies for the Food Teachers Centre.

Come and join us in June in the closed Facebook group. You do not need to sign up for the event, simply be on-line and join the discussion. Look out for the banner above for dates and evening start time.

07 June – “Plan now to give yourself a good break in the Summer!” Kath Callaghan and Jill Oliver

12 June – “How to bid for and make the most of a technician” Barbara Rathmill

22 June – “Using apps in the classroom” Fiona Balding

27 June – “Demonstrations” Suzanne Gray and Kath Callaghan

If you would like to lead a chat session or help us, do let us know at info@foodteacherscentre.co.uk.

We don’t have a fancy office, we don’t have any paid staff or secretaries to answer the phone and reply to your emails, we don’t have any funding from government, we don’t charge a membership…. BUT we do have each other in the community, so that’s nearly 5,000 teachers to help each other, and that’s the way we like it!

We are really happy to share the launch of the new revision guide from Collins, which is being printed as we speak. We offered a great team of authors to Collins as they have such an amazing track record and reputation as a publisher based on sound research in effective revision and study for exams.

The revision guide structure is based on the research that shows that repeated practice is more important than repeated study. It contains key facts for revision, quick quizes, mixed style exam questions, a student workbook or photocopiable section, practice questions and two full practice papers -Ideal for your mocks.

The education price for schools is ONLY £3.99, so don’t buy it from Amazon as the public price is £10.99. And as it is over 200 pages that’s great value.